Transcript of The Billion-Dollar Energy Drink No One Saw Coming | Ep. 446 with Scott Frohman Founder and CEO of Odyssey Functional Energy

Justin Bieber became my spokesperson. Guess what? Failed. I lost.

This is Scott Froman. He started with a drink nobody understood. Today, Odyssey is the number one natural energy brand in America, stocked in 17,000 doors and fueling the offices of SpaceX and Citadel.

I built this whole thing with no marketing, no social media, zero. This whole thing happened Because I focused on building.

What did building Odyssey cost you?

One thing it didn't cost me was my.

So Scott, you were a burnt-out Wall Street guy. What did that world do to you?

Look, you know, I spent a lot of years on Wall Street, and I was, you know, coffees, moved to Florida, got into. Cuban coffees that I really like. And, you know, I was always kind of like wiring out. And then, you know, energy drinks, you know, came about and I got really into, oh, okay, here's another thing to stimulate myself in the afternoon. Got a bunch of, you know, energy drinks and, you know, things like that. But it really, it moved me to kind of like say, okay, this existence that I have going on here, I didn't feel like it was going to get me to where and how I wanted to live long-term. So I said, I think I got to make some changes and Change it up a little bit.

From what I read, you wanted energy without the crash. You were testing with putting mushrooms in, but it tasted terrible.

Yeah. So, as the evolution kind of developed in my life, I started getting very entrepreneurial. I got to start to look at doing other things outside of Wall Street and I got involved in products. I got really into products. My background is I got into health and fitness and Pilates and I got sciatica and all of a sudden, the Pilates helped me. And, I started getting into doing triathlons. And so, I got into using these kind of functional mushrooms, kind of utilizing lion's mane for focus and clarity and cordyceps that were really good for endurance and VO2 max. And, I started adding them to my coffee in the morning and I said, wow, I really like how I was showing up. I was showing up, I had this clarity, I felt that I was— The way I was managing with people, my creativity. I didn't feel like I needed that extra cup of coffee for that extra caffeine as I went. I felt I had this longer-lasting energy and I just felt this better existence. So, that was what was going on as to how I got into these functional mushrooms in the first place.

So, you went from vaping to CBD to now mushrooms. Would you say that you're chasing trends? Or do you see things before everyone else?

You look at the vaping, I just looked at it like it was a better alternative than smoking cigarettes. And then, you know, I was like, I thought, like, I looked at it like, and I'm not gonna go through the debate whether it is or it isn't. Okay. But I really think that, you know, and I saw a trend of getting from, you know, because I was into vape early before there's even vape stores. And I saw the trend of like getting into those little e-liquid bottles because it was Originally it was, you know, rechargeables and electronic cigarettes and moved to these little bottles. And then the bottles turned into the premium bottles. And I, I got into that. I ended up owning vape stores. I went public with my deal. I had worldwide distribution selling vape premium e-liquid bottles and stuff like that. And that was really cool. And I built that and sold that. And what happened was when I sold that, I had a non-compete, so I couldn't do anything with nicotine. But I, I liked the whole thing, movement of what was happening with cannabis. And I really liked the whole thing with CBD because I looked at CBD, it was like, wow, this can really help people with anxiety and like, you know, inflammation and, you know, sleep and, you know, just better existence.

And I, and I liked CBD without the THC because, you know, I thought that this would be good for a lot of people. So I got the CBD and I built that relatively fast because I had all that distribution. from vape smoking head shops. I was able to plug right into, you know, all that obscure place in the back of a shopping center would take CBD in early days before people really fully understood. And I got involved in that early and I built a big business on the CBD. But I, yeah, I like, I like getting involved in things that I see helping people. And, you know, at times when I feel like the market is ready for those products.

I tried to do some stuff with CBD maybe 10 years ago, but the regulation changes and everything, it freaked me out and I got out of it. And maybe that was a big mistake. What kept you into these?

Yeah, CBD was clearly gray, you know what I mean? And especially when I got in, because I got into CBD in 2015 and I built that company really fast. And, uh, but people like the products, you know, we had the creams, you know, it helped people with like, you know, like all kinds of, you know, it was fantastic, you know, a lot of cool tinctures and, you know, some vape products. Look, I think it was, I sold the company in 2018 to TerrAscend, which is a big cannabis MSO. They're like the biggest operators like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I wasn't looking to sell the company. Actually, funny enough, I was making good money with the business. It was a private company. And I said, well, this market's about to change. A lot of people like, I'm getting into CBD, I'm getting into CBD. The regulations were about to change. And I said, wow. I said, I really want to be positioned. So I wanted to, you know, actually raise money and have a war chest of money to, you know, manage throughout this. As it was, they wanted to buy the company. I sold the company.

That was great. And then I spent a year worth of the integration and now it's like, you know, January 2020 and I left the company and I, I now I'm sitting at home and I'm by myself with my wife. I got 2 kids and actually, My one kid was born January 4th, 2020. So I had this moment that I was able to like just take a break because, you know, it was a lot. It was a lot of activity going from the vape to the, you know, to the CBD and then the CBD to selling the company and then the integration. You know, there's a lot that goes on with that a little bit, you know what I mean? And I was glad to take a moment to take a breather.

So now that you've started Odyssey, What learnings did you have from the other 2 companies? It's going to enable you not only to have a successful company with Odyssey.

Yeah, it's a great question. So look, one of the things I think I've learned is really being more sensitive to what's working and what's not working and really being real with the consumer. At the end of the day, what does the consumer really want? Look, I had, you know, I come up with these products and then, you know, but like, which are the products that really resonating with them. What's really with the product that they're— I always say, people say, what's the best workout? I say, you know what the best workout is? It's the workout you're willing to do. Well, guess what? You know, with the products, it's what's the best product? You know, it's also the product you're willing to, you want to engage with on a regular basis. So I think that I've been very more sensitive to what's working, what's not, doubling down on what's working and things like that. And where I think this is different about exiting And then the other companies, you know, like it resonated. Look, my friend started the vape business and they asked me to come in and run it, you know what I mean? So, and I justified it as a better alternative to smoking cigarettes and stuff like that.

But like the CBD, I, I like CBD a lot, but this was something that I really built that resonated and aligned with me. I built this from scratch. I came up with the name. I came up with the formulation. I came up with how I wanted it to exist. You know, I was using the mushrooms in my coffee and it was muddying up the coffee. So, I didn't really love how I love the coffee. So, that's why I was also thinking like, I think I could do something to make it, you know, a product that, you know, would be great. But this is something I'm really excited about going distance with because I really think that this is like, there's been no innovation in energy beverages. Since the inception of the last 30 years from Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, now Celsius. I mean, by and large, it's the same type of mosh pit of caffeine with taurine, you know, other, you know, stimulants.

Repackaged, essentially.

You know, uh, sweetened with sucralose, you know what I mean? Or sugar. Like, you know, there really hasn't been in like, but like, look at us as consumers and look at us as people today. We're different people today than we were, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. Our needs and our desires of how we want to show up. We didn't talk about alignment 20 years ago as much as what it is today. Being centered, you know what I mean? Being present, you know what I mean? And I really think that it's very exciting when you think about energy. What is energy? You know what I mean? Is energy just about being up here? Or is it about like, you know, focus and clarity and, you know what I mean, energy about like how you're existing, you know what I mean? How you're exercising or how you're showing up to work and how you're thinking and how you're spiritually feeling. You know what I mean? You know, plus I think it's really interesting to think about what we want to— I love this project, not for just today or to create through an exit.

I'm really about building this thing long-term. I think that this is the you know, the future of what, you know, what, what people are looking for longer term. And I, I'm really excited to be part of it.

So, yeah. So, functional mushrooms are definitely picking up. I'm starting to see them more and more. However, I imagine it required a lot of education in the beginning. How do you sell something that requires you to explain it when people don't understand it?

It's a great question. So, look, when you really look at this, I really think that the functional mushrooms have really developed in the last, let's say, 10, 20 years ago, in the last 5 years especially. And why?

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Because they work. Because when people try these high-potency lion's mane, they get the focus and clarity. They really work. And that's why this isn't about what's happened in the last decade or 2. This is what's gone on for thousands of years. This started thousands of years ago. They knew, they recognized this, okay? Long, long, long time ago. And the reason this hasn't happened because of some celebrity endorsement people that got behind functional mushrooms. This has happened organically because one person tried it and said, wow, I really like this. And then, they shared it with somebody else and shared it with somebody else and shared it with somebody else. And now, it's become what it's become. So fortunately enough for me, I didn't really have to— if I had to go off, go educate everybody on this, I don't think I would have done the project. And I think that lion's mane and some of the other functional mushrooms were already in the limelight and I was able to kind of jump on To say that I'm going to give you a product that's going to taste great, that's going to help you to function great.

It's going to be more approachable. You talk more about that. But I don't think that it was really about me having to come out to educate because if I had to educate, I think the lift would have been, you know, way too hard. And then I think what it really is about is putting out a product when people drink the product that they say, wow, I love the way this product makes me feel. Like going into this, I didn't think about the cost. To what it's going to cost me to make the most amazing product of all time. I said, I want the highest potency of lion's mane. I want the highest potency of cordyceps. I want the highest potency of L-theanine. I want to do this product and I don't want to think about the cost. Let me build the greatest product and then I'll back it out and say, what do I have to sell it for? Is it going to— is the consumer willing to pay that price? As it was, I was able to build a product for The mushroom manufacturer teamed up with me. They came in. I got a lot of people that came in with me from ingredients.

Then they were excited about the project and I was able to get pricing in a way. And now we're doing big production. So I was able to get the pricing good so I could really compete and not have to be so— as it is, it worked out. But I wanted to build the greatest product. And then as it is, because it works so well, people come back and buy it again. Our repeat customer base is wildly high. And then the best part is they're sharing it with their friends. People are saying, hey, you got to try this product. Like, we need to try this product. And then people trying the product, they're like, oh my God, I can't believe how I feel. Like, this product is like, I'm like running at a whole different level. Like, I have an edge when I drink this product and how I'm operating. This is awesome. And I think, you know, that's what did— that's what's going on to get us to where we are.

A lot of people would require a tremendous amount of time to launch a product because they want it to be perfect. The packaging, for example. And then what I find is it— nothing ever happens, right? Like they took too much time, they spent too much money. I like to see when people similar to yourself, when you launch it, it's not perfect. And as you go, you change the name, you slightly change the logos. Do you have the original can?

Yeah. So, you know, funny enough, it's a great point what you're bringing up, by the way. And, you know, funny enough, I think if I would've known more of what it took to do this, I don't know if I even would've started in the first place. But I'm willing to try things. You know what I mean? I'm Look, I did it with so many different things before. I'll, I think the other ones were a little less competitive. I didn't realize what it took to compete in beverage. This is like a whole nother world. You know, CBD, I had the niche, you know, the vape, I got in early. You know what I mean? I had to find my ways. You know what I mean? A lot of hustle, a lot of grind, a lot of shows that I showed up for. But look, I'll actually show you. Okay. It's really interesting.

So.

Interesting enough, and I don't really usually take this out too much, but I'm glad to do it here. So, this was the original coffee drink. You see, it was Odyssey Mushroom Elixir. We called it the, what do you call it, functional mushroom brew. So, I was talking about functional back 2021 here. You know what I mean? This product was focus and energy. It had the lion's mane, the cordyceps. It was a French roast Bolt Latte is what it was. And this over here, sacred geometry and Metatron cube, and I called it the, you know, the mushroom elixir. So, I was all about functionality, you know, from back when. And then, I launched this. But what happened was when I launched this, I said, wow, it came out so good. I thought to myself, you know what? This can be like a forward-thinking energy drink. Because what happened was there was a delay in getting the production during COVID getting the production done. So, because of the delay, I was playing with some coffees. And during COVID everything was about immunity. So, I made a white tea with elderberry and I put in 5 different types of mushrooms like turkey tail, shiitake, chaga.

I went crazy. Okay. And I made this white tea with elderberry, And I folded immunity. And, you know, and then, so now, because of that, if that didn't happen, I don't know if I would've gotten to where I'm about to go with this. Because what happened was now I had the coffees and I had the teas. So, I launched coffees and teas. And I went out to stores and I started going. And I remember I went out to California, went to Erewhon the first day and I took this coffee drink and I'm like, I like to get this product into your store. And they said, sure, you would like to get your product in the store just like everybody else in this world. So, good luck. You know what I mean? In a good way. In a good way. The guys were awesome and they were really sweet. And I said, oh, let me see what you got. And they tried it and they were like, this is really good. And they said, you know what? Let me tell you how you could look to maybe get into Erewhon. And as it was, it worked out.

But what happened was because the teas came out so clean, see, I thought I had the mask. The mushrooms. The teas came out so clean, I thought, wow, maybe I can make this into a forward— and the way this drink hit, I was like, maybe I can make this into a forward-thinking energy drink. So then I came up with—

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This, which was the Odyssey Elixir, and I cleaned it up and I called it the Odyssey Elixir for cognition and energy, dragon fruit lemonade. And I launched this, but the velocity on this product was through the roof, way better than the coffees and the teas. Well, the coffees were really good. And then I thought to myself, then I saw it got it going. So, I started saying, okay, I'm playing right now in 3 different categories, coffee, tea, and energy drink now. And that's where it started. So, this started with 80 as it is, this drink over here morphed into the Odyssey. We'll get back into this functional energy here. And this is what the drink is today. But that was the impetus. I thought to myself, I think I can make this a forward-thinking energy drink. And I pivoted away, I got rid of the coffees and teas, I decided to double down on where, where I was getting the best velocity and the best result. And I was selling this in and stores were taking it in, I was getting into thousands of stores. And all of a sudden, the repeat business came and people were loving it.

A lot of pioneer people were like, oh, I love the design. I like the whole sacred geometry, it resonated with people. And It got me a launch, but it wasn't really getting me to where I wanted to go.

How are you finding the difference nowadays between going into stores and different types of stores? Like you said, there's AeroWent to Walmart, Target, to, you know, mom-and-pop other ones versus selling online. And when I say online, it could be TikTok Shop, social media live, or, you know, a website like Shopify.

Look, you know, I think a lot of companies, they start online, Right? Or they start with a big community and they build up their community with the online and stuff like that. Interestingly enough, I focused more on brick and mortar. I focused more on distribution and I focused on getting into more stores. I was always very comfortable. And winning in this game, just winning online doesn't mean you're going to win it on the shelf. And beverage needs to be won on shelf. And I recognized that early days. I was a study of Mike Repoleo. I was a study of Celsius stories, Bang Energy, you know, following Bloom a lot. You know what I mean? I'm just really a study of like who's winning and how they're winning. And you have to win, you know, on the shelf. So I guess what happened was that—

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I realized that where I started, which was a lot of like natural stores, very granola, you know, a lot of like cool little stores and, you know, great areas and stuff like that throughout the United States. So American, and those people which I can't thank enough, helped to get this product going. And those were thousands of stores and tens of thousands of consumers that were like, I love this product. Thank you for putting out a product. And then what happened was I started talking to some of the bigger groups and I was categorized as functional. And they said, look, at that point I actually had a no caffeine called Revive. I had the low caffeine, the 85. I had the higher caffeine, the 222, which I didn't even have the high caffeine yet. And then we can talk about that next. But I realized that I was getting, um, yeah, a lot of the bigger groups were like, it's, it's kind of nichey and you got like, you know, a lot of different options here. So I got rid of the Revive and no caffeine. And I also launched the high caffeine because I found a lot of people are buying a drink.

This has 85 milligrams of caffeine with high potency lion's mane and cordyceps, which, and L-theanine. But what I realized is, is that A lot of people were buying our drink as we got into more convenience stores. They were buying our drink with either a Celsius or a Bang Energy because they also wanted the caffeine. And this only had the 85 milligrams of caffeine. So most every energy drink is caffeine and taurine and sweetened with sucralose. Basically spike you up, crash you down, hard to come back. With Odyssey and even the Odyssey 222, which is 222 milligrams of caffeine and you put in the L-theanine, It rounds out the caffeine. So, you get a longer sustainable energy without the crash and the jitters, but you're getting this focus and clarity. You basically get this overall better existence, yet the drink tastes great because we use real fruit juice concentrate. Like this drink right here, pineapple mango, legitimately tastes like pineapple sweetened and rounded out with the mango. And, that's why this drink is legitimately and You know, and our higher caffeine has become the lead racehorses. So, while I started with 85s and I thought to myself, oh, I'm going to give people a lower caffeine but give them more on this functionality, I realized that those velocities have been good and that got me started.

But then, I listened to the consumer and said, I want also the higher caffeine too. And now, the velocity on this is considerably higher. than we have on the lower caffeine. So I did pivot along the way and that's kind of like how part of that, you know, some of that has kind of come about.

So you said that you've lost, you had lost your balance chasing this. What did building Odyssey cost you?

Oh, so one thing it didn't cost me was my family. You know, I got a beautiful wife, I got 2 kids, and I said, winning, you know, winning is like, is winning it all. You know what I mean? Like, I found ways to continue to— look, I'm not doing triathlons lately. I'm not training for that. I don't have the time to do it, but I run, I cycle, I Peloton. I build the same gym in the office that I have at home. I got a little toning machine, you know, I just, I just make sure I stay in the game correctly. You know, like my health's gotta be right. If I'm not right, nothing's right. My spirituality, I meditate, take care of myself, make sure I take care of my family. So I made sure that, you know what, I was going to win at this business and then see myself because fortunately enough, I had a lot of other things I've done in my life. So fortunately, if I didn't have all those experiences going into this, I think this would've been, you know, it's not, it hasn't been easy, but I think it would've been very different.

And I've also come in with an attitude. So What did it cost? It cost, I really love what I do. Yeah. I come in here every day. We got a team and we've had ups and downs all around, but there's been a real investment into the deal. We have over $30 million invested in the deal between my money and other people's money. I have friends and other people that had investments in with me in the past and other deals. And when I came and started, I put all my own money in, by the way. And I said, if it's going to work, then great. And if it's going to not work, then I'll take my own hickey and I'm not wanting to bring other people's money into that. But then it started to really work and we started getting all these sales, but there was a lot of pivots. You know, we started with coffees and teas. We started with the 85 milligrams of caffeine, but then that wasn't enough to really win bigger. We started with the Metatron Cube, sacred geometry, but then that had to pivot to functional energy. We went to figure out we needed to hire caffeine.

I lost stores along the way. I gained stores along the way. I had to pivot from functional to, and those, those costs all along the way. And I had, you know, I, and I, and I just kept at it. And then dialing in all the flavors. You know, I had to keep dialing, getting the flavors right. not easy competing with sucralose with the top, you know, what that sweetness is. And I had to get into my product so that it was like, it, you know, it hit right, tasted right. We always had the functionality. So I think, you know, there's been a lot of, there's been trial and tribulation to get to where we are today. And then, and there was a cost to that. And I continued on because I saw the velocity. And now our velocities are so strong, especially with the, with the 222s and even the 85s, you know, have really found their place. So I think that, and then we pivoted out of functional and most recently classified and categorized as energy. And now we've been well received. So now while we're in 10,000, 12,000 doors, 50,000 points of distribution and doing very well where we are in natural, And now expanding into grocery.

Now I really feel that, you know, we have the foundation which to do this, and that brings on to the marketing, which we can talk about. And then that's really going to grow us. Like, I see how Olipop and Poppi kind of started in natural and then built into grocery. And we, I believe that we have the legs to go into convenience and, you know, go, go the full distance. And that's why I'm excited about what I'm doing. You know.

You can't beat a billion-dollar exit, right? That seems feasible.

Look, I think that, I think the opportunity is a billion-plus dollars in sales. I think we can potentially outsell Celsius. I think that this can be the— I believe this is the evolution of that. I think that has headwinds because that is formulation, an old formulation that stems back to the original energy drinks. And what we're bringing out is more of the forward-thinking innovation of what people are really looking for. Not so much about the ingredients, but about that it's functional energy, that it gives you that sustained energy. Don't give you the crash. It gives you this better existence that when you show up at work, we're crushing it in micro markets. We're one of the biggest selling products in micro markets. Some of the biggest companies, whether it's Uber and Citadel now and SpaceX and So many. And we're winning so big time there. Why? Because when people come to work, they want to have an edge. They want to compete. They want to, you know, they want to have something that's going to help them to function really well in a good way. And they love the drink and the drink helps. And that's— we have purpose.

You know, our purpose was that I like the way these ingredients work for me. I wanted to bring these ingredients out to other people. That was the idea that I felt like I could do good by bringing something that I felt could really help people. And that was the impetus. So, you know, that's why I wake up every day and just, I don't slow down. Matter of fact, I just keep going better and better. So that, and then, and then it's the working out, you know, it's like, you know, I, I, I cycle, I get on my bike, I drink the drink. I'm like, I'm in the zone. You know, I'm playing tennis. I feel like I'm more in the game. And, or maybe it's just about hanging with my kids and going about my day. Or maybe it's for a housewife that, or not housewife, or if she works and she's got kids, husband, kids, or everybody. You know what I mean? For whatever you're doing throughout the day, or maybe even using it at night as an alternative to alcohol. But, you know, okay, a little bit of caffeine with the lion's mane and the cordyceps feels refreshing and good and you feel, you know, elevated a bit.

And it's like, it's nice as an, oh, you know, instead of drinking, you know, alcohol. I'm not knocking anything. Look, I'm here. Odyssey is a spiritual journey. I look at it like this. It's your life. I'm not telling you to tell you how to live your life. I'm just helping to try and help support you and help to give you something that's going to help you to live your life even a tad bit better than anything else that can help you, you know, because no matter what you want to do.

What would you say is the biggest lie or misconception right now in the wellness industry?

You know, I just think that everyone's just, oh, better for you. I don't ever say it, you know what I mean? Like, oh, is it better for you? Or, you know, is it better?

I don't know.

You know what I mean? Some are, some aren't. You know what I mean? I just, you know, I think that, uh, I think you gotta listen to your body. I think you gotta like listen to what does your body need. And you know what I mean? But fruits, vegetables, proteins, you know what I mean? Like, How this quantity size is, you know, frequency. I don't know. Like, I just think that, you know, everyone's just, oh, I'm better for you. I'm better for you. I think not everybody is better for you. You know what I mean? And I, you know, I think that—

Yeah. More customized to the individual versus saying everyone's going to get better if they do X, but maybe they're better if they do Y. Because you've been at so many, you've done things before other people really Caught on. You're, you're a visionary. Was there something that happened though, in any of these 3 companies that you've been referencing that almost broke you and said, you know what, I was wrong?

Look, there was a deal before this deal.

You know, I'm always looking at where founders can actually build something. So let me tell you about Whatnot. I got on the app and started out browsing luxury watches, then somehow ended up in trading card unboxings. And before I knew it, I was watching live shows for new electronics. That's the thing about Whatnot. The live format pulls you in. Sellers are moving through inventory in real time. The chat is going and the deals are real. You almost never pay full price on Whatnot. But here's what got my attention as a business guy. Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform. Beauty, collectibles, electronics, luxury fashion, even cookies. And people selling on Whatnot sell 10 times more than on other major marketplaces because you're not just listing products, you're building real relationships with buyers who come back to see your face, not a logo. The number of sellers making over $1 million a year on Whatnot has doubled. Buyers spend more than an hour a day in the app. This is not a side hustle, it's a real path to building something that lasts. I use Whatnot And if you've been waiting for the right place to start selling, this is it.

Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away.

That I had done, um, it was called PhoneGuard. It was anti-texting when driving software. It started off as— and, and a lot of people back in the days of BlackBerrys and Androids were like, And there was a lot of kids that were texting and driving in the early days with BlackBerrys and Androids and iPhones. And, you know, this is like the earlier days and those kids were going to jail. People were going to jail. Manslaughter, texting and driving, people crashing, terrible things going on. And mothers against texting and driving. And It was this big thing. And I was like, oh, I'm going to put out this product that when the phone moved faster than 10 miles an hour, it's going to basically prevent you from getting text messages. It was going to send out an auto reply saying that I'm currently driving. When I reach my destination, I'll call you back. I said, oh, what a good thing. This is such a good thing. Wow. Everyone's going to love this. It's going to save lives. It's going to help people. Guess what? Nobody wanted it. Nobody. Nobody. Guess what? You want to see? Let's show you something.

You know? Yeah. I'll show you.

Forget it.

I'm going to show you. Justin Bieber became my spokesperson. Legit. Real story. Okay. You can look it up. PhoneGuard. You could look up videos. Justin Bieber, PhoneGuard, you know? And Justin Bieber's like, look, you know, I want to get behind something to help people. And who better than Justin Bieber back in those days in the teens? When, you know, to attract feet, make it cool. Make it cool not to text and drive. Make it cool. We're on Morning America. We're on like Today Show, like viral.

Guess what?

Failed. I couldn't get people to put it on their phone. Go and put it on the phone. Mothers, I hear them on the phone. Give me that phone. No, mom, don't take my phone. Not putting it on your phone. No!

Good luck.

Good luck trying to fucking make that work. I was like, I failed. I lost. Okay? I lost hard. I didn't know how to quit. I went way too far with that deal. Put way too much money into that. I didn't know how to quit. Everything else I did in my entire life always worked. I'm Hercules. I'm Scott Stroman. I can make it work. Yeah, yeah. It can stop now. Best sales lesson I've ever learned. That's why when I said earlier about the, the SKUs, calm down. If something's not working so well, listen, if it's not coming off the shelves that easy, pay attention. If people aren't, and the buyers aren't taking the product in, there's a reason. They're not all wrong. These people are smart. When the buyers came to me and I'm trying to get into some of the biggest retailers now, we're in conversations with the biggest retailers. It doesn't make a difference who they are. Every one of the major retailers, we're in reviews, we're in communication, and it's a very different conversation today. It's not a mushroom, it's not an itchy, it's not a Metatron cube, it's functional energy. It's, I'm going to give you more sustained energy.

I'm not going to give you a crash of years. I'm going to give you focus and clarity. I'm going to give you a product that's going to taste great. People are going to come back and buy it again. I'm going to basically help bring new consumers that would not have maybe bought things in your store that are now coming to buy this product in your store. And I'm grateful to have the ability to get it there. And these retailers want product that people, the consumers want. It's a win-win for everybody. So, I listened to what the retailers were telling me and I pivoted. So, I just think that I've taken a lot of things that I've done in my life. And, I think that the mushrooms that I drink and the lion's mane that I have on a regular basis has helped develop the creativity to have come up with this in the first place, coming up with the name or the sensitivity to say, this isn't working, we need to make some adjustments. What do we need to adjust to make it so that it's more approachable on the shelf? Because we won this whole thing.

with no marketing or advertising. I didn't pay not $1 to not one influencer up until recently, which we could talk about what I'm doing now. It's very different now. But, I didn't pay, I didn't do any marketing. I built this whole thing with no marketing, no social media, nothing, zero. This whole thing happened because I focused on building a great product. And, when people tried the product, they came back and bought it again and shared it with their friends. It was more important to develop the right product because I don't think people care so much about the hype.

Less about the marketing because you always hear like, Marketing, great marketing, bad product beats great product, bad marketing. But you, you took a different approach. How are you leveraging content creators now?

So now what we're doing is, is now is the time for us to create the awareness. Why? Because we know the product is right. We know that people come back. We know that 80% of people try our product, come back and buy it again. We know the average consumer online is buying 2 cases every single month religiously. Like, we know that the velocity, it's right. And I didn't want to go and market until I had it right. You know what I mean? And it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. So now what we're doing is we're doing deals on TikTok where we're paying out significant payouts, legitimately 50% payouts to content creators on TikTok so that they can go And we're giving them discount codes, 20% discount codes for them to share because we know this is about trial. We know when people try the product, they're going to like the product, they're coming back and getting the product again. We know where we're at right now. And it's worth it because we know that, you know, while we're going to take a little hickey on the first order at the beginning, we know that we're going to wind up having a customer that's going to come to us And look, we're winning in not only the micro market, we're winning in colleges too.

We're winning a lot of places. So we know that we have consumers that we feel we're the first ones out of the gate here. We're really down the racetrack here. You know what I mean? There's no one really in our rearview mirror and no one in front of us with what we're doing. And we want to just keep on with that lead now and extend that out. And there'll be others that will come in. I think old highs will But, that's what we're doing on TikTok. And, we have some of the greatest content creators on TikTok that we've sent out samples to and now on Instagram. So, we sent out a few hundred, you know, we reached out to some really great people on Instagram and TikTok and said, we want to share this product with you. We sent out sample boxes, beautiful. They try the product, go, oh my God, this product's amazing. I love this product. And, we love this because it's not We want to discover new discoverable products that we could bring to the market, not products that everybody knows about, you know, like, you know, that are typical, that people are familiar with.

We need to find things that are new so that we could be like, hey, look what I uncovered. And it's true. They're now coming to the market and saying, look what we uncovered. Look what I found. I found this. Okay. Obviously, you know, functional. They're coming to the market and they're saying, look, I found this product. Okay. And it's true. They did. They found this product, Odyssey Functional Energy, going to give you more focus, clarity, no crash, no jitters product. And the product tastes absolutely fantastic. And they're excited to bring out to their—

You know, I'm always looking at where founders can actually build something. So let me tell you about Whatnot. I got on the app and started out browsing luxury watches, then somehow ended up in trading card unboxings. And before I knew it, I was watching live shows for new electronics. That's the thing about Whatnot. The live format pulls you in. Sellers are moving through inventory in real time. The chat is going and the deals are real. You almost never pay full price on Whatnot. But here's what got my attention as a business guy. Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform. Beauty, collectibles, electronics, luxury fashion, even cookies. And people selling on Whatnot sell 10 times more than on other major marketplaces because you're not just listing products, you're building real relationships with buyers who come back to see your face, not a logo. The number of sellers making over $1 million a year on Whatnot has doubled. Buyers spend more than an hour a day in the app. This is not a side hustle, it's a real path to building something that lasts. I use Whatnot And if you've been waiting for the right place to start selling, this is it.

Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away.

To their— what do you call— to their network, a product that they could stand behind because they're drinking the drink and they're saying, wow, not only does it function so great, it tastes phenomenal. I love this product. And guess what? The company is supporting me because, hey, I make a living, I have family, I have, you know, wants, desires, things I want to bring into my life. And they're paying me out handsomely to go out at 50% or 35% that we're doing on Instagram and stuff like that to share the product. And now all of a sudden, out of nowhere, getting hundreds and now soon to be thousands of content creators They're like, and I'm hosting virtual meetings with them, having sometimes 25 at a clip, soon to be a whole lot more. And I'm explaining to them what the product is really all about. What's our purpose? What's the product? Why it's special? And, you know, and different opportunities of how they could look to present it. And they're grateful to have this, you know, meet the founder kind of thing. Here we go. No pun intended. And here's what you do. And, you know, To be able to share it.

So, that's what we're doing. We're doing that on Instagram. We're doing that on TikTok now. And, I think that creating all that awareness and all that life around the social and now podcast too, I'm looking to do advertisements, by the way. If there's advertisement opportunities on your podcast, I'm interested in that too. But, I think it'll be great. I think the kind of people that listen to your podcast would love to know about Odyssey. It attracts a very achiever type of person, a person that really wants to, you know, really achieve and really get ahead. And it's really taking, you know, look, I'm not saying not to have a great time. You could be an achiever and achieve having a good time too at Coachella, by the way. Okay. You know what I mean? Achieve having a good time jumping out of a plane, doing like— so we're all about that. And I just think it's, that's how we're doing it with social media. So now what we're doing is we're paying out a high payout, you know, and we're getting a lot of people that they're getting the product, they're trying it.

Yeah.

I'm running the offer. I'm running, I'm getting up. They're saying, I love the fact that I got something I could stand behind more than practically anything I've ever done before because I absolutely love the product. And then the feedback they're getting from their audience is fantastic. They're like, oh my God, like, thank you for sharing this. And it's just, it's just a, it's just, it's all good. So now, so you're going to see a lot more about us right now. We're not, we're not being like this great restaurant that nobody knows about. We're, we're, we're here to let everybody know that, you know, what, what's going on with this right now. So it's really fun. I'm really looking forward to this part of it.

I'm glad you brought the part because I think you had no ego when you needed to pivot. You know, the company was failing previously. You got out of that. People would have probably stayed and drained every single dime that they had. Instead, you got out and you went to the next thing. You knew when to cut your ties. You know when to put the gas pedal. And it seems like you're in an incredible upward trend right now. You got a lot going on. But founder and CEO of Odyssey, I love the packaging. The website's great, the branding. I can tell that you are super passionate about this. And I think just your love for it is coming through just here.

It's my absolute pleasure. You know, I really I love seeing people be well, and thank you very much for having me on your show. I greatly appreciate it.