Innovation Strategies for Beauty from Within Supplement Brand

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bobby Hewitt (00:00):
Hey, in today's episode, I sit down with the VP
of Innovation from VitaQuestInternational.
We're going to chat aboutopportunities in the marketplace
and the two types of supplemententrepreneurs and how VitaQuest
can help you get beyond thefailure to launch and how to
grow and thrive as a supplemententrepreneur.
Stay tuned.
Let's kick off the show.

(00:20):
Welcome to Health BusinessMastery, the Creative Thirst
Podcast.
I'm your host, Bobby Hewitt.
I'm your host, Bobby Hewitt.
So today's episode, I want towelcome Michael Antonovich to
the show.
Michael serves as the VP ofInnovation at VitaQuest
International.
He is dedicated to expandingthe supplement market footprint

(00:43):
and ensuring customers gain acompetitive advantage.
Michael brings extensiveexpertise in developing new
technology, championinginnovation and growth for all
areas of health and nutrition,as well as over 30 years
experience in the skincareindustry.
product development.
Michael is a seasoned skinbiologist, research scientist,

(01:05):
educator, and a member of theInternational Probiotics
Association, the Council forResponsible Nutrition, and
American Botanical Council, anda member of the Scientific
Advisory Board for the New YorkSociety of Cosmetic Chemists for
the past six years.
Michael, welcome to the show.

Michael Anthonavage (01:23):
Thank you, Bobby.
It's a pleasure to

be here.
Yeah, I think it's going to bea really deep, insightful
episode from a really uniqueperspective.
So VitaQuest International is asupplement manufacturer where
if you want to start yoursupplement or looking for a
competitive price quote, go toVitaQuest and they can set you
up with all sorts of productsand formulations.

(01:47):
But in this episode, I thoughtwe'd narrow down the topic and
really talk about that beautyfrom within category.
That category includessupplements for skin, hair,
nails, and anti-aging.
And that category is growingrapidly.
It is expected to reach $4.23billion by the year 2030.

(02:09):
And it has a growing andcompound annual growth rate of
5.5% from 2024 to 2030.
So it is growing and movingplaces.
We're also going to cover thetwo types of supplement
entrepreneurs and how to avoidfailure to launch and how to

(02:29):
grow and thrive as a supplemententrepreneur and how VitaQuest
can actually help in that aspectas well.
So Mike, how are you doing?

I'm doing fantastic, Bobby.
This is a subject near and dearto my heart.
As you've mentioned in my bio,I spent the majority of my
career on the topical side ofthings.
So this is kind of like a newrenaissance for me to help
consumers and to help productdevelopers crack this market

(03:00):
potential because there's stillso much there to be had.

Absolutely.
And from a businessperspective, right, the beauty
from within category has a lotof opportunity, not only from a
growth perspective, but also ifyou look at it as a sort of a
complete protocol, right?
From everything from a topicalto a powder to even sleep and
cognitive effect, right?

Oh, certainly.
Beauty from within is more thanjust skin deep at this point.

Yeah, that's hence the name, right?

Yeah, it's just, so I've, What was
incredibly interesting to meabout working on the topical
side was that you had to dealwith an organ that, A, everybody
sees, including yourself.
You're judged on it based onwhat your friends and your
family and your colleagues andpeople who you know and don't

(03:59):
know see about you.
And in addition, it's one ofthe first indicators of your
health.
So if you're not looking toogood, people notice.
If you're looking good, peoplenotice.
How do I say it?

(04:19):
It's your prerequisite beforeyou open your mouth.
So people have an opinion,right?
Your first impressions areeverything and a lot of how you
carry yourself is a big part ofthat.
So on the topical side, Theorgan itself, the skin and hair,
they're designed to keep thingsout of the body.

(04:42):
So as an industry who's lookingto enhance beauty outside of
cosmetics, right?
So outside of paint, spackle,that's how I kind of call that.
The biology of beauty is ratherchallenging because of this.
barrier that your evolution hasgiven your skin to keep harmful

(05:08):
things out and primarilykeeping water soluble things
out, right?
So your skin is primarily lipidin constitution.
So things that are lipid basedare ones that are generally
favored in the topical arena.
So right then and there for 30some odd years that I've been
playing in this category, I'vehad these limitations that have

(05:31):
fostered incredible deep divesinto research and how to
circumvent these barriers andhow to deliver efficacious
formulations to the skin.
So now I get to go underneath,right?
You know, the whole taboo ofbeing transdermal or
transepidermal, which is a no-noin the cosmetic side of the

(05:53):
world, now just, you know, I getthe feast at a completely
different table of And we can gointo some of those as we get
into the discussion, but it'ssuper exciting.
And for those people who are onthe topical side, who think
that the topical side is reallythe primary opportunity in the

(06:18):
category, if you open up yourhorizons a little bit and take a
look at what supplements can dofor the skin, you'll be blown
away by the activities that youcan get and the results that you
can get.
supplementally.

Yeah.
And if you're looking good,people are noticing, like you
mentioned, right?
If they're commenting on that,that is a great intro to word of
mouth, right?
To the products for thatadditional sale.
And there's nothing morepowerful than word of mouth in
marketing.

Amen.
I mean, I personally believethat, you know, obviously
revenue generation is key and isa very big KPI for a lot of
brands.
But I also believe that if youmarry that with loyalty, is
that's really when you knowyou've kind of struck a chord or
you're getting noticed becauseif you buy it again, chances are

(07:07):
you're going to buy a thirdtime and a fourth time.
And then that creates afollowing.
And then every time that youbuy it again and people are
commenting on how well it'sworking on you, the brand
self-advertises at that point.

Absolutely.
Yeah.
And for that second purchase,which is really key, for the
back end of the business and thelifetime value and continuity
and all of that, right?
You need one, you need aproduct that works, that you can
see the difference or feel thedifference or other people are
noticing and commenting on thatdifference, right?
But there's also opportunities,I think, within the category to

(07:46):
be more of a complete sort ofholistic protocol for beauty.
And I'd love your perspectiveon that.

Yeah, yeah.
And this is where I'm like akid in a candy shop, right?
Because it's just not aboutskin and hair anymore, which
that's an entire encyclopedia ofinformation right there.
But it's also linking yourmicrobiome, your skin
microbiome, which is a separatesubfield of microbiology or

(08:15):
microbiome study now, to yourgut.
And that interplay is has justbegun.
I mean, I think from ascientific perspective, we're
just tapping into the potentialof these gut-skin axis,
gut-brain axis.
Women's health is especiallytaking advantage of the

(08:36):
gut-vaginal link.
There's a gut muscle link.
There's all kinds of links,right?
So when you learn your biologyand your physiology in school,
it's very reductionist, right?
You know, the cell makes up thetissue, the tissue makes up the
organ, the organ makes up thesystem, and the system makes up
the organism, right?
And that's where it stops.

(08:58):
But there's so much more tothat because these are not
discrete independent systems.
They're all relying on eachother for success.
right?
And that's the evolutionarydriver in health.
So why would you just focus onone aspect of it when there's so
much other supportive tissueand organs and systems in the

(09:19):
body that contribute to youroverall health, which is
something that, like I saidearlier, everybody gets to see.
So sleep, cognitive health,monsters, subjects, right?
Because if you are not feelinggood about yourself, right?
And maybe we're not talkingabout how you look now, right?
We're talking about how youfeel.

(09:41):
So if you're not feeling good,you're not sleeping good.
If you're not sleeping good,you're not looking good.
And then if you don't get thatfeedback loop that you're not
looking good, then that justcompounds the problem, right?
And then that might go off intoyou're not eating well, right?
which then will compound yoursleep pattern, which then will
affect your cortisol levels.

(10:02):
And for a long time on thetopical side, I was always
plugging inflammation,inflammation, inflammation,
right?
But where does the inflammationcome from?
Well, there's a lot ofinflammation that comes from
within, right?
That inflammation term that wehear a lot about.
That all comes from sunexposure, that comes from your
diet, that comes from exercise,that comes from lack of sleep.

(10:24):
Are you eating the colors ofthe rainbow, which are
ultimately providing you withall the polyphenols and
antioxidants that you need toquench your daily stress
exposure, right?
So I think holistically, and Ithink that's really the best
word to describe beauty fromwithin opportunity because as a

(10:48):
marketer or as a scientist, youcan pick one route or the other
to then develop yourdifferentiation path, right?
You can be in a crowdedcategory, but have a unique
message that resonates with acertain sub population or
demographic that you're going tofocus primarily on, right?

(11:09):
And then from there and aboutthe loyalty piece to swing that
back in, once you've got a brandthat's actually kind of
sprouting roots and germinating,now you have the opportunity
for a multi-generational plan,right?
So you build, you build, right?
And successful brands alwaysincrement, at least

(11:33):
incrementally innovate, right?
Because they want to keep theircustomers engaged.
They want, that engagement iscritical to both the feedback to
the brand as well as to themarket getting the recognition
that you're actually lookingfor, right?
There's nothing better than tohave your product show up on

(11:56):
some Monday, you know, somemorning news show saying, you
know, this incredible productHerb from roses or polyphenol
from roses has become the nextgeneration of beauty care
product.
Look at the befores and afters.
And now you're reachingmillions of people with a couple

(12:17):
before and after photographs.
And people are like, wow, Iwant some of that.
And they want to get like athree or four minute clip.
But that's enough to tease, andthat's enough for people to get
on the internet and researchit, or that's enough for them to
go to the manufacturer'swebsite and say, hey, I want to

(12:38):
be that brand.
How can I be that brand, butjust a little bit different?
I want a piece of that.
That's what we're here to do atVitaclass, right?
We're just not your averagerun-of-the-mill contract
manufacturer.
Part of my role and the rest ofthe innovation team, which is
vital to our success, is theability to customize solutions

(12:58):
for people.
And that's, you know, I feellike I'm the conductor of an
orchestra when a customer likethat walks in the door because,
you know, the regular customerwill walk in and say, hey, I
have a formula, can you buildit?
And that goes straight to PD,right?
and they do they do a wonderfuljob we have excellent
formulators here we have greatflavorists they know how the ins

(13:22):
and outs of the details aboutall formats that are anhydrous
so it gets done well but i'malways looking for the customer
that walks in and says hey youknow i want to be in this today
we'll talk about beauty fromwithin i want to be in that
beauty from within category Itjust seems crowded, but I have a

(13:43):
good idea or I have a customerbase that's really, that I've
determined some white space.
There's a knee gap that's notbeing met, whether it's from a
sustainability perspective or avegetarian or vegan perspective
or marine versus terrestrial.
I mean, there are so many waysto angle your product to nudge

(14:07):
your way into a crowded market.
And then success is how wellyou can stay there.
The first order of success is,well, hang in there.
Can you hang with the otherbrands?
Are you taking market share?
Are you getting the attention?
Are you getting the hits onyour social media?
Do you have the rightinfluencers?

(14:28):
I mean, some brands, they spenda lot of money on the marketing
end to get the endorsements ofcelebrities and sports figures
and well-known people.
There's nothing wrong withthat.
I mean, how you get yourmessage out is the art of
marketing, right?
And then you got thescientists, you know, I call
them and I'm one of them, youknow, one of the left brainers.

(14:50):
They're in the lab, like, youknow, scratching their head.
How can I make that better?
How can I make thatbioavailable?
How can I increase thestability?
Is there manufacturing problemsthat cost us money?
that we can find solutions forto lower our costs so our
consumers can get into thisformat a little easier.

(15:10):
So there's really, the sky'sthe limit as to the
conversations that you can have.
So it's really my job atVitaQuest here to just show
people what the potential is,right?
We can deliver it, right?
If you could envision it, and Isay this to all our customers,

(15:31):
knowing what you want is, half aget in what you want.
So paint me a picture, help mehelp you, right?
And that always starts themeeting off on a good foot,
right?
Because then they know they gotan ally in this and I'm on the
same team as they are, right?
Because the creativity part ofit is really what people walk
out of here, you know, with anear to ear smile, right?

(15:54):
They're like, wow, I had noidea you could do all that
stuff.
But...
out of sight, out of mind,right?
So it's my job to put it infront

of them.
Yeah, yeah.
And so many health supplemententrepreneurs come from one or
two places, right?
One is more of the entrepreneurwho's just looking for an
opportunity in the market,looking at the data, looking
where the trends are, right?
But then there's another that'smaybe even more common of like
the entrepreneur that'sscratching their own itch, the

(16:23):
entrepreneur that has a vision,a purpose, a passion, right?
for that specific morbidcategory or that specific
problem, it's either them thathave looked to have that
condition, maybe it's a skincondition, maybe it's something
else, maybe it's eczema, maybeit's acne, whatever the case may

(16:46):
be, or someone in their family,right?
There's usually an emotionalside of that story.
Do you see entrepreneurs comingto you that fit those two
buckets or would you say thereare any more buckets in there
that are missing?

The latter.
I'll start with the latter,right?
So the folks that come in witha personal experience or family
members that have X, Y, and Z,this is their inspiration for
putting a solution out in themarket, right?
So they feel altruistic intheir endeavor to say, hey, I
want to help people, right?

(17:21):
And we get a lot of smallbrands that want to do that.
So they don't have aspirationsof...
know mega success right theythey feel as if i can help
anybody with these theseproblems that they outline um

(17:41):
that's that's that's successnumber one right they they kind
of focus well the business willfollow if if i got the right
solution now Bobby, you touchedon something that we have to be
really careful about, and theseare structure of function
claims.
So, you know, if you talk aboutdandruff or if you talk about
acne, if you talk about any ofthese conditions, even on the

(18:02):
topical side, these aremonographed by the FDA, right?
So you have to use specificingredients if you're going to
use those words.
In the supplement business,it's even stricter.
So we have to be more carefulabout how you approach that or
how do you use that approach.
So, yes, maybe my brother or mysisters or myself had a
terrible acne problem when wewere kids and that caused all

(18:25):
kinds of emotional distress.
And, you know, and I don't wantanybody to go through that.
Right.
So I have a solution.
Right.
And but you can't reallydiscuss the problem.
medical piece of that.
And I think that's reallyimportant.
So it doesn't mean it's offlimits.
You just have to be creativewith your terminology.

(18:46):
So instead of saying acne, youcan say clear skin or blemish
free or healthy looking skin,right?
It sounds like it's watereddown a little bit, but at the
same time, by doing that, youactually give yourself more
options to play, right?
Because if you were to say,let's just say, that the FDA
said you could use the wordacne, which you can't, then

(19:11):
you'd be almost putting theguardrails in too tight.
And that doesn't give you a lotof options for solutions,
right?
But when you say clear skin,you can now talk, and I'm making
this up, but you can talk aboutlinking your gut microbiome to
your skin or fortifying howMaybe you would like to

(19:33):
normalize your skin microbiome.
What does that mean to theconsumer?
Like 10, 15 years ago, I wasgoing to microbiome conferences
for the first time, right?
And I've been studyingmicrobiology for 35 years.
It's not that we didn'tunderstand there were bugs on
our skin.
We just didn't understand theecology of the microbiome.

(19:54):
And what fascinates me aboutthat is that you take the laws
of cellular biology and you goup 15 rungs in complexity and
you apply the laws of ecology tothese microbes on how they
behave on your real estate or onyour landscape.
So each part of your body has adifferent environment, just

(20:18):
like in your house or on yourproperty, right?
You have those areas that get alot of sun, you have those
areas that don't get a lot ofsun.
Things grow differently inthose two different places.
So, That's an opportunity ifyou know how to play that.
So when you talk about thesemarketeers that want to take a

(20:39):
help the world approach, thenyou can leverage your science
more, right?
Because you can say, hey,listen, for those of you out
there who have blemishes ormodel pigmentation or sun damage
or or blotchy skin or anythingalong those lines of safe

(21:00):
descriptions without soundingmedical or making structure
function violations, you canthen back that up with these
high level topics of biologywithout having to own the whole
mechanism down to apharmaceutical explanation.

(21:20):
People get it.
The customers are definitelymore educated than they used to
be.
And with every market, whetheryou're talking cognition, gut
health, women's health, brainhealth, all of it, exercise and
sports, recovery, hydration,each of these categories is

(21:42):
becoming a subspecialty to thesupplement industry.
So 50 years ago, when you wentto your doctor, he or she was
kind of the expert oneverything, right?
Now, if you go and you say,hey, doc, I have this thing on
my shoulder, and they're like,ah, stop, I got a dermatologist,
you should go see them, right?
So now it's a specialty, right?

(22:02):
Oh, yeah, it doesn't looknormal, so let's take it to
someone who knows more aboutthat stuff.
Because the GP...
that can't actually assimilateall the information there is to
cover your entire healthanymore.
And the supplement industry isdoing the same.
You peruse the aisle and it'san alphabet soup of all these

(22:23):
cellular metabolism,inflammation inhibitors,
longevity, ideas, like all ofthat from a cellular perspective
would benefit the beauty fromwithin category.
So how do you help somethinggrow in a certain direction that
parallels your marketing story?
It's all possible, right?

(22:45):
It's all about telling a storyand a story that's either
substantiated by brandedingredients, which have clinical
studies to support your claims,or you can be generic.
and say, hey, listen, a goodpile of antioxidants is gonna
make you look good, right?
And you can kind of leave it atthat and then focus more on

(23:07):
your backstory saying, hey, whenI was a kid, things didn't look
all that good for me.
And now I did this and now takea look.
And I've told this story to myfriends and now they look good.
And now everybody has access tothis.
So why not give it a try?
I mean, it's this dominoeffect.
It's never an A plus B equalsC.

(23:30):
It's a multi-generationalstory.

Absolutely.
And from a marketingperspective, from marketing
supplements, I see theingredients and even the product
line as an extension of thatstory.
Those are just tools in thetoolbox to help tell that story
better.
So for example, we can get intothe beauty within category of a

(23:56):
supplement or ingredient,right?
Where we can combine that withanother topical product, right?
To really create an entirestory around how it's being
used, that whole aspect oftaking it on the inside and
applying this on the outside andthat whole dual approach,

(24:17):
right?
Not only that, but the wholesensory aspect, right?
So all of that contributes tothe experience of using the
product, that second sale likewe talked about because now you
have a second product to selland now you have a reason why
they should buy the secondproduct or a bundle together.
What are your thoughts on that?

(24:37):
I know with your background insort of the beauty category and
everything you've done on thelotions and cream side, I'd love
to hear your perspective.

yeah i i i had it always brings me back to
to an experience when you knowwhen i was when i was when i was
in the lab full time you knowwhere the only thing i had to
worry about having clean was mylab coat um it was all about dig
in understand publish patentyou know produce data and and

(25:10):
then bring it to a meeting forsomeone to say, hey, how can we
do something with all this,right?
So I finally get my chance totake off the lab coat and I get
into one of my first marketingmeetings and the marketing
people go, so Mike, you got someexciting news to tell us,
right?
And I'm like, well, and I startgetting into this whole
mechanism of inflammationinhibition, right?

(25:31):
And I'm like talking aboutprostaglandins and leukotrienes
and blah, blah, blah.
And my boss kind of leans over,he goes, Mike, he goes, just
tell him it soothes the skin,right?
Because I was so excited totell the world about all the
stuff that I knew that I forgotwhy I was there in the first
place, right?
So to your point, Bobby,Sensory is a huge, huge piece of

(25:57):
the topical market, right?
I would bet that eight to nineout of 10 customers who walk
into like a Sephora or an Ultaor any aisle that's got rows and
rows of moisturizers and hairproducts and whatnot, the first
thing they do is crack it open,give it a sniff, maybe put a

(26:18):
little on their skin and see howit feels.
And that's how they make theirpurchase.
Now they're reading the bottlesaying, you'll get stronger
hair, no split ends, moremoisturized skin, less wrinkles,
blah, blah, blah.
But that's gonna take four tosix weeks.
So in that interim, theindustry spent a lot of time,

(26:42):
especially with aesthetics whenit comes to tactical, how to
invent words or utilizeadjectives that resonate with
customers like less tacky,playtime, silky, smooth, right?
All these things are sexy,right?

(27:03):
It causes you to have thisrelationship with your product.
Supplements on the other hand,well, you chew them, you swallow
them, you put them under yourtongue, you mix them, right?
However, The topical thingsdon't have that the supplements

(27:24):
do have is flavor and texture.
And that's a big part of ourproduct development here at
VitaQuest because we know thatthat's a differentiation point.
You could have the mosteffective combination or
formulation of ingredients thatcould make your workout better,
make your hair better, make youreyes brighter, make your skin

(27:45):
glow.
But if it tastes bad, I don'tthink people are going to stay
with it.
And you got to stay with it forat least four weeks, at least
four weeks, because that'susually the turnover time of a
lot of parts of your skin thatpeople will notice.
So here at VitaQuest, we'veactually made investments behind

(28:06):
the scenes where we can modifyingredients to have more
texture.
We utilize...
technology in effervescence.
We use technology inagglomeration and spray drying
to have flavors adhere and havebetter blooming and more

(28:28):
playtime in your mouth so yoursensory and your brain are
engaged.
So every time I go back to thatbeauty from within supplement
that tastes like amazing, right?
That's another thing to talkabout.
Not only look at me and howgood I look from taking this,
but you know, you're going tolike the taste of this too.

(28:48):
And taste is very subjective.
So you have to make more skews,right?
I'm going to be very generalhere, but your vanilla, your
chocolate, your strawberry,right?
Well, those are your standardice cream flavors, right?
But then you get into otherthings that become popular, And
just like in the topicalindustry, which used the Pantone

(29:10):
color of the year as theirmarketeering color focus, which
is derived from the runways ofParis in the early spring,
there's the flavors of the yearthat our industry kind of
focuses on.
And where do they come from?
Well, that comes from bigsurveys from big marketing
companies that try tounderstand, well, in the

(29:31):
hydration market, which is veryimportant for skin health, what
are the best flavors or what arethe trending flavors for
hydration that's going to keepyou using your product until it
starts to show an efficacy?

What are some of the trends you're seeing there?

Well, you know, we get into these exotic
berries now.
You know, companies,traditional hydration products
were the lemon and limes, right?
And then we get into the redsand the blues.
Right.
So what flavors are behindthose like strawberries and
cranberries?

(30:08):
And then you get the crangrape.
Right.
You get these these thesehybrids where, you know, I do a
lot of cooking.
I love to cook.
I'm not a baker.
I'm a cooker.
Right.
And the difference is that Ican experiment ad infinitum.
cooking because there's kind ofno rules, right?
Baking's very like, well, yougot to measure it, you got to

(30:29):
stir it just the right way oryour souffle doesn't rise,
right?
Or your cake falls down.
So I love to play, right?
That's what attracted me tobiology, right?
You push a couple buttons overhere and something changes over
there and you're like, ah, lookat that, right?
Cause and effect.
So when people...
take their supplements, usuallyin a powder form or in a

(30:56):
effervescent tablet or a slowmelt or something that creates a
little playtime in their mouth,particle size is important,
right?
How thick are these particlessprayed or incorporated with the
flavor?
Is that flavor actually afunctional ingredient too,

(31:16):
right?
There's a whole...
there's a whole arena offlavors that have multiple
purposes, right?
That kind of, you slide thingsin under the radar.
That also starts to bring inlike green technology and the
sustainability technology andthe social responsibility
technology, right?
We just heard the FDA not toolong ago, start outlawing dyes

(31:41):
and colors, right?
So if your flavor isartificially colored, That's a
problem, right, today.
So if you don't have a plan Bfor that, natural flavors, you
know, a natural flavoralternative, then you're going
to kind of be stuck for a while.
And the rest of the industry isgoing to lap you.

(32:02):
It's going to pass you.
So you always have to stay ontop of what's going on.
You really do.
And you have to play chess andnot checkers.
And it's really a strategicwhite space evaluation all the
time.
Just because you think you havean angle, that angle is not
going to last forever.
And someone's going to see yoursuccess in that angle and

(32:24):
one-up you.
So you can do what a lot ofcompanies do, and they try to
protect themselves, right,through IP, right, and from
market share by just protectingflooding the market with their
technology, where then you haveothers that will say, hey,
listen, I'm okay being a smallfish for a while because I'm
gonna get the attention of somebigger fish later.

(32:46):
And then those might be abusiness opportunity for me in
terms of an acquisition, whichthen will give me more capital,
which will then boost this greatresearch that I have already
built a foundation around,right?
There's a business model aroundthat, right?
And it's done inpharmaceuticals all the time.
The small, you know, indie typeof brand will spend four to six
years developing itself,waiting for a parent company to

(33:10):
say, hey, you're exactly what wewanna add to our portfolio.
Why not, right?
And as a business owner, I'mgonna say, well, the price is
right, sure.
And now I get to use this justbig multinational companies
resources to expand my productline.
Now there's pros and cons tothat too, right?
The speed, the regulation, Thebloat within the company kind of

(33:34):
slows things down.
You lose some of yourdecision-making power when that
happens.
But nevertheless, it's asuccessful model for people to
really make their mark andelevate your brand, right?
We've seen this happen multipletimes in the industry where
some small brand becomes kind ofa monster and then a big

(33:56):
multinational will come in andjust kind of quietly say, you
know, we own that now, but youkeep doing what you're doing.
And we're just going to makesure that we support you in the
best way possible.

I look at it from, it's almost like you're
creating an experience, right?
Because with the sensoryaspect, you have the experience
of putting the topical At thesame time, you have the
experience of that flavor in achewable or an effervescent or a
powder.
And actually choosing that andthat combo effect of the

(34:33):
decision of going with a powderversus a tablet or a gummy to
orchestrate that experience, toorchestrate that sensual and
sensory input And you guys atVitaQuest are masters at the
flavor combinations.
So is there any other benefitto doing one form over another,

(34:59):
like effervescence tablets,gummies, powders, capsules?

Yeah.
I mean, your format is kind ofcontingent on a few things.
Listen, gummies...
gummies were responsible forkind of introducing supplements
to the masses, right?
Well, all of a sudden, youknow, we were able to put them
in, and especially for kids.
I think it all started withkids' vitamins, right?

(35:24):
Your kids aren't taking theirvitamins because they taste
nasty or, you know, they chewand then they're like, I don't
like that, right?
So, now you make them likecandy and they're like, oh,
where's my vitamin, right?
So, great right this this feedsthe psyche this this does all
the the the reward the rewardcomplexes in your brain are all

(35:45):
satisfied and and there'snothing wrong with it when
you're an adult and you'relooking for effects and you're
looking for efficacy and you'relooking for that experience um
you have to ask yourself wellhow much stuff do i need to get
that experience And gummiesspend a lot of time on the

(36:08):
gummy, right?
So the capacity of a gummy islimited.
So therefore you start to findyourself taking handfuls of
gummies, right?
And there are low caloriesweeteners and there are ways
that, you know, you can getaround the sweet tooth.
Like, you know, don't tell yourdentist that you're taking six
of these a day.

There's only so many gummies you can take before
you get gummies.

Yeah, yeah.
And obviously, once you getinto an older population,
there's always underlyingmedical conditions.
Like, well, people are tryingto keep their weight down and
they feel like they're eating alot of sugar with this.
But then, like I said before,there's no calorie sweeteners
that you can substitute.
So, chews are an alternative.

(36:55):
And chews...
allow you to put moreingredients in there because
you're not spending the time onthe matrix of the gummy, the
gelatin, which takes up almost50 to 60% of the product.
But then you're talking aboutthings like ingredients like
collagens and keratins andproteins, which we all

(37:16):
understand to be kind of likeharder to assimilate as we get
older.
And as we get older, that's thepopulation that wants the
anti-aging benefits, right?
So right then and there, theprimary flagship solution to
anti-aging for most body partsis get sufficient amount of

(37:37):
protein in your body.
And that's on the gram level.
And that's really hard to dowith a gummy or even a chew,
right?
Because I don't want to take ahandful of chews either, right?
Especially if I'm effervescingthem, I put them in my mouth and
it's like, you know, I'mfoaming.
So what you do is you go intopowders and scoops and sachets

(37:57):
and stick packs.
And this gives you almost, youknow, outside of some flow
agents that are required from amanufacturing perspective, and
you want a clean label if youcan get there, on those types of
ingredients.
But now you can put gramquantities with milligram
quantities all together intoyour story.
And I particularly like a twicea day approach for beauty

(38:21):
because I think there's certainthings that happen at night
versus certain things thathappen during the day that you
can leverage and differentiateyourself from.
But the topical andsupplemental approach is
brilliant.
What I see a lot of people makea mistake and do though, is
that, and like how I started ourconversation, the topical side

(38:42):
is very lipid friendly.
Like everything is lipophilicand because like dissolves like,
you know, Mike's rule ofchemistry and your skin is very,
it has a lot of lipids andceramides on it.
So if you can have a lipiddissolve through the epidermis
of your skin, then you'redelivering it.
So why would you take a lipidsupplementally?

(39:04):
right, unless you're reallytrying to stack some
bioaccumulation or bioefficacyof that particular ingredient.
But I think you're almostlosing your opportunity to
leverage the water solublevitamins supplementally and then
stick to your lipid solublestuff topically, right?

(39:26):
So your repertoire of activesyou know, grows at least
additionally or additively, ifnot synergistically, if you
apply both approaches.
Now, for those that don't know,you need a separate contract
manufacturer for topical thanyou do for supplements, right?
So there are different rules onboth sides of that fence.

(39:47):
But the companies that aredoing both are finding great
success in that.

What do you mean by that?
There's different...
Well,

there's different label requirements
from a regulatory perspectivefrom the topical side versus the
supplemental side.
There's differences in howingredients get trademarked and
recognized on label in both ofthose arenas.
They're both CGMP operations.

(40:17):
But it's really the regulatoryside that kind of changes
things.
And many, I don't, and listen,I don't want to say that this
doesn't exist, but I don't knowof any contract manufacturers
that do both in the same place,right?
They might have a facility inpoint A that does their

(40:39):
supplements and then a facilityat point B that does their
topicals.
But I don't know many of themthat do that because you, The
way you bring ingredients in,that's all controlled, right?
And again, there's differencesbetween pharma, food,
supplements, and cosmetics interms of the manufacturing

(41:01):
protocols.

Is there a way to modify the components and the
ingredients within a formulationto make it either a better
sensory experience or...
work better in combination witha nighttime regime versus a
daytime regime or a powderalongside of a topical

yeah yeah um again there's a lot of
permutations of that um ibelieve you you have to know
your consumer and there you knowand i'm going to talk about
north america u.s right if ifyou're a multinational company
and if you're looking to tobranch into asia or or Europe

(41:43):
and the US are pretty similar,but once you start going outside
the Europe and the US, thereare different beauty protocols.
I don't think any woman wouldsay they're in the middle of
their protocol before they'regetting ready for bed.
as it's studied, right, from amale perspective, right?
I've been through a lot ofthese training sessions, you

(42:05):
know, to say, hey, listen, howmany steps does your average
woman have, or the averageperson now, because it's not
just women anymore.
Men are a big part of thebeauty category.
You know, they don't stand upand shout it from the
mountaintops yet, but you'restarting to see more
commercials, you're starting tosee more advertising, you're
starting to see more productsbeing geared towards men,

(42:25):
especially for corrective beautyor...
corrective health, right?
And then the youngergenerations are getting more
involved in the preventativeside.
Like they know how their momand dad aged and they don't want
to follow that path, so tospeak, right?
Or they want to slow it down alittle bit or they want to
enhance it if their parents agedwell.

(42:46):
So each of those marketendpoints, if you take them back
to your product developmentstrategy, creates an opportunity
for you to maybe take the playthat, listen, you're already
washing your face, you'realready putting on a moisturizer

(43:08):
in the morning, you're alreadywearing makeup, and I'll just
leave it at that for women, orfor men, that's where it ends
and bang, out the door you go.
But I'm also taking my shakerbottle with me where I have two
scoops of my daytime formula,which now I'm gonna nurse until
lunchtime.
A lot of people just do thisthrough greens, reds, blues,

(43:31):
because they feel like you'regetting this panacea of
wonderful stuff, whichultimately will work on your
skin and your hair, especiallyif there's biotin and protein in
it.
But you're also...
taking things now that ourvendors who are essential for

(43:51):
our toolbox here at VitaQuest,they do all the clinical
studies.
And there are some supplementsout there now that can actually
help reduce your ability to burnin the sun.
They're not sunscreen.
So let me just say that rightup front.
And the sunscreen market isvery regulated in the topical
side.
However, there are ingredientsthat will reduce your ability to

(44:16):
burn or help your sunscreensperform better, right?
And obviously you want to takethis during the day, right?
Taking that at night and, youknow, unless there's some really
unusual circumstances you'rein, it doesn't make any sense.
The converse to that is atnight, that's when your body
repairs, right?

(44:36):
So if you think about New YorkCity or Chicago or any of these
big cities, that have hugecongestion problems and millions
and millions of people, theystill build skyscrapers while
the city is operational.
So how do they do that?
Well, they ship in all the rawmaterials at night when traffic
is low.
You want to do the same thingwith your body.

(44:58):
You want to ship in the rawmaterials like the collagens and
the peptides and the aminoacids and the carotenoids and
the biotins and all these thingsthat are essential for building
the scaffold, which is yourskin and your hair and your
organs and all your collagensand whatnot, while the

(45:19):
construction crew is working.
It doesn't mean it's notworking during the day.
It just means that theconstruction crew during the day
is weather dependent now.
So if you're exercising or ifyou're at work, there are
limitations.
If you're at the beach versusin a rainforest versus in an
office, all these things have aneffect on your skin.

(45:41):
Your shower has an effect onyour skin.
The coolest thing about skinthat I love to tell people is
that it's the most evolved organin your body because it's the
one that interfaces with theenvironment the most.
So it's ever-changing.
So in order for it to functionwell, it has to be prepared.
Prepared for what?
Everything.
Everything, right?

(46:03):
Bug bites, sunburn, freeradicals.
You name it, pollution.
Your soap, if it's not clean,and it's made from chemicals and
has perfumes in it and all thatkind of stuff, that affects
your skin microbiome.
So there's no domino that won'tfall when you press a button
somewhere on your skin.

(46:24):
So day-night routines, thesegive you opportunities for
different flavor packages,different sensory packages.
You really don't want somethingthat's going to be invigorating
before you go to bed.
So we've done things likeSleepy Time Beauty Cocoa

(46:47):
powders, where you takeadvantage of that whole getting
ready for bed, cozy, warmfeeling while you're still
getting all of these rawmaterials being pushed into your
body while you sleep.
So you wake up.
You put on your topical, andremember too, the supplement

(47:09):
strategy should be additive orsynergistic to your topical
strategy.
It shouldn't be duplicative.
I don't know if I'm saying thatright.
You shouldn't duplicate it.
So as a formulator, looking tomanage cost, which is something
you're always managing for acustomer in a contract

(47:32):
manufacturing facility, you findthat ingredients like ascorbic
acid, vitamin C, very, verypotent on the skin for
pigmentation purposes, forcollagen production, for free
radical inhibition andsequestering.
However, vitamin C is extremelyunstable as a molecule.

(47:55):
So it's a terrible ingredienttopically, unless you modify it
in a way to keep its stabilityin the tube for two years.
Conversely, and by modifyingvitamin C, which is a relatively
cheap ingredient by a parentcompound, you increase the cost
logarithmically to do that.

(48:16):
So why would you spend all yourmoney on ingredients that don't
have to be that expensive ifyou take them supplementally,
right?
So again, your strategy from amarketing perspective doesn't
always have to be you're goingto look great at the end of
taking my stuff.
You're going to look great, andit's cheaper to look great.

(48:40):
Right, right.
You know?
So, again, depending on how youwant to play your market
message, right, or who it isthat you're talking to, it makes
all the difference on how yourproduct design goes.

So when someone comes to you, a supplement
entrepreneur, they want to starta product, they want to create
a product.
Are they usually coming to youwith a list of ingredients that
they want?
Or are they usually coming toyou more with like what they're
trying to accomplish?

Yeah, I would say a little bit of both.
Yeah, a little bit of both.
A large part of my job here atVitaQuest is fostering the
relationship with our vendors.
Without them, we're dead in thewater, right?
Because otherwise we're justkind of like making generic
decisions.
packages, right?
So three, four, sometimes fivetimes a week, we're in front of

(49:34):
vendors who have clinicalstudies that are just coming off
the conveyor belt, or they havesomething that they've modified
a very common ingredient to bemore bioavailable.
Berberine, for instance, withthe GLP-1 story, right?
Nobody thought in the beginningof that story that it would
have anything to do with beautyfrom within.
However, Now we're seeingpeople losing weight pretty

(49:56):
fast.
They're very effective GLP-1inhibitors, first generation,
second generation.
However, there are a lot ofside effects now.
Sarcopenia is one of them,right?
So you're not just losing fat,you're losing entire body mass,
and that includes protein.
So that loss of protein, whichis called sarcopenia, now starts

(50:16):
to give you that sallow, youalmost look like you're sick.
And that's not the intention,right?
The intention, these drugs wereintended for diabetics and
pre-diabetics to manage theirweight to keep their insulin
resistance in check.
And it turned out that, well,as a country, we're pretty obese

(50:37):
and this isn't a bad idea tokind of thin people out.
Well, there's side effects tothat, right?
There's nausea.
There's the fact that you'renot eating the way you used to
eat, which is kind of a goodthing.
And that's the whole purpose ofbeing on these GLP-1s is to
modify the way you eat.
So when you come off, you'reeating healthier.
But what happens when a lot ofpeople come off, not everyone,

(50:58):
but when a lot of people comeoff, they put the weight back on
instead of it being the ratiothat they lost it, let's just
call it 50-50 protein fat, nowit's a 95-5 fat regain.
And it's like, whoa, wait aminute, now I'm in worse shape
than I was when I started,right?
So this, again, globallyaffects the beauty from within

(51:22):
space on how you perceiveyourself, how others perceive
you, and how you understand yourown wellness.
And that's That's priceless toknow that kind of stuff.
So best intentions always haveconsequences.
And those consequences createopportunities for other people.

(51:43):
And certainly we have donenumerous presentations in the
beauty department around peoplewho will come in and say, I want
to focus on the GLP-1 customer.
And you're starting to seethese products on TV commercials
now and whatnot.
And this even goes for peoplewho can't take the GLP once but
want the same effect.

(52:04):
That's a whole otheropportunity from a beauty
perspective.
So, yeah, it's really endless.
And I think you'll see thecategory growth rate in this
particular market is going toexplode even further once these

(52:24):
startups these categories getstacked and people start to see,
hey, listen, when you talkabout menopause, that's a
completely different beautystrategy than if you're talking
about someone in their 30s and40s, right?
And there's a completelydifferent taste profile for
those women versus thepopulation that's younger.
And then you've got the 20 to35, 20 to 45.

(52:47):
Listen, when I was teachingmenopause, herbal studies for a
while, I would have women intheir young 20s taking retinol
products.
There wasn't a blemish on theirface, but yet they're using
these high-powered carotenoidsas if this is going to stop them

(53:08):
from aging.
But what you're doing is you'retraining your skin to be
dependent on these things andyou're not letting your natural
processes work.
And there's nothing better thanyour body's own natural way of
doing things.
There really isn't.
And that's what supplements aresupposed to do, right?
They're supposed to supplementyour body's natural processes.

(53:28):
Once you go over the top andstart making it quote unquote
therapeutic, then that's acompletely different
conversation.

Right, right.
So the innovation in the space,from your perspective, one area
could come from personalizationthrough your supplement stack,
right?
And even though we have a veryvery informed market very
informed buyer there's stillmore room to grow what I'm

(54:00):
hearing on that information andeducation side from the buyer's
perspective all of those areopportunities from the
entrepreneur's perspective toprovide that to the marketplace
or tap into that existing beliefin the marketplace and really
propel it so This, it isdaunting from a brand new sort

(54:21):
of entrepreneur perspective whocomes to you, wants to start a
product.
I can imagine many of themreach the point of like failure
to launch.
I have a great idea, but Ican't get it off the ground.
Is there anything thatVitaQuest can do in that respect
that's more of act like apersonal advisory team or coach
to help that entrepreneur?

Yeah, for sure.
I mean, one of the, Ourinnovation team reports to the
executive vice president ofsales.
So it's designed to be at thetip of the spear.
There's process improvementteams with InvitedQuest that

(55:04):
focus on how we execute theideas that we put in front of
our customers.
But our innovation team isreally about creating an
experience for our customer thatwalks in the door with this
intention of being successful,right?
I'll give you a few examples.
There are these data miners ofAmazon that have developed

(55:32):
proprietary web crawlingsoftware, right?
That this just trackseverything.

Right, I just see what's selling.

And then they go, okay, well, bourbon
looks like it's the hottestthing going.
I'm just kind of pickingsomething out of the blue.
And then, so I want to be inthat, right?
I want that market share.
If we could make their productfast enough to capture that
bubble, then we're popping corksand champagnes flowing, right?

(56:04):
Pretty hard to do though,right?
Because typically it's going totake about, three months to hit
the market if everything goesreally smooth.
So did you miss the bubble?
I don't know, right?
It's kind of like chasing thestock market, right?
There's definitely a lot ofpotential there if you can move

(56:24):
fast.
But the thing of it is, youknow, I believe that you can't
be a fly-by-night, you know,panacea solution for everything
by that business model.
I don't want to poo-poo it.
It's just, it's not what I,it's not what I endorse, so to
speak.
But yet if the customer comesin and wants to do it, hell

(56:45):
yeah, we'll do it for you,right?
Because why not, right?
This is your product.
You believe in it.
And I have no, I want to seeyou be successful.
So we'll do everything we canto make you successful.
The other client that comes inthe door is that, you know, we
talked about this one earlier.
They have a personal experiencethat they never want to happen

(57:08):
to someone else.
So we talked about that.
We also talked to people whoknow that they do their market
research and their strategizing,their SWOT analysis, their risk
analysis, and they have aparticular propensity to want to
be a brand that only usesmarine sourced things, right?

(57:31):
I'll give you a great example.
Estee Lauder has a brand calledLa Mer, right?
All their topical stuff comesfrom the ocean, right?
Allergies, this, and kelp, andblah, blah, blah, and all these
wonderful ingredients that comefrom the ocean.
Well, someone like that couldcome in and say, hey, listen, I

(57:52):
want to be completely vegan.
How do I get collagen intopeople who are vegan, right?
And that's one of the bigbuilding blocks for success from
an ingredient standpoint.
So our vendors give us enormouspossibilities.
I have, if you can imagine amechanic shop, right?

(58:13):
You walk in the door and yousee these tall red cabinets with
all the drawers.
Mine's the size of like a giantstadium.
I got the biggest toolbox thatyou could imagine.
And it takes a lot of energy tomanage that.
and make sure that the rightingredients are put in front of
the right customer.
Now, a lot of times people willcome in with caviar taste on a

(58:36):
McDonald's budget.
That's okay, but I gotta findthat out in the conversation.
So there's a lot of dialogue,there's a lot of iteration.
VitaQuest tours very well.
We have an excellent facility.
We have excellent staff here.
When people come in the door,they're usually smiling from ear

(58:56):
to ear when they leave.
And that's a good feelingbecause I know I'm supported
behind me and I'm supported infront of me, right?
So this plays through in theway we talk to customers.
This plays through in the waythey feel about VitaQuest.
And let's face it, we're notfor everybody, right?
You know, we're a custommanufacturer.

(59:17):
If you just want to do A to Zvitamins at the lowest possible
price, at the we might beover-engineered for you, right?
And there are cheapersolutions.
I'm not going to lie.
But at the same time, if you'relooking to differentiate
yourself, and if you're lookingfor a board of consultants,

(59:37):
because that's what we are toour customers, we're here to
embrace you.
And we'll take your idea and...
we'll expose the good, the bad,and the ugly about it, right?
Transparency is really the keyto success in a position like
this because you don't want tomislead a customer down this

(59:58):
false hope pathway.
Now, we can't foresee everypossible problem that happens,
but we have a fantasticregulatory department.
We have a fantastic productdevelopment department.
We have fantastic packaging andlabeling and oversight.
So, If anything is going wrongalong the way, we've got a team
that has experience on how tohandle it, how to correct it, or

(01:00:21):
to give you options, right?
You're only as good as yourplan B.
So we've got lots of plan Bsfor customers when they hit a
wall.
So it's really being nimble.
It's really being creative andempowering the customer to feel
as if what we're giving them is,is additive and synergistic to

(01:00:45):
their brand, right?
We want to help.
We don't want to be the, here'sa checklist, make sure you
check all this off before youshow up, right?
We're not like that, right?
We'll tell you, hey, listen, wegot a checklist a mile long
here.
We're going to check thesethings off as you approve them,
right?
We have customers come in andspend a day tasting one formula,

(01:01:07):
15 different ways, too sweet,aftertaste, masking tastes,
watching it flow, watching itmix.
A lot of people, when you getpowdered bags of stuff, it all
goes well into solution when thewater's warm.
A lot of people want a colddrink, so they'll use cold water

(01:01:31):
out of their refrigerator, andthey'll be stirring and stirring
and stirring and stirring, andstuff doesn't go into solution.
It stinks, right?
But that's not how it wasbuilt.
But if you tell me this shoulddissolve completely within 10 or
15 seconds, I'm making this up,in room temperature water or
cooler, then we'll modify theingredients to do that, even

(01:01:56):
though they might inherently notdo that.
So that adds a layer ofcomplexity.
So again, knowing what youwant, is half of getting what
you want.
And it's certainly importantfor us as VitaQuest to be your
partner to know everything thatyou want so we can deliver at
least the 80-20, right?
I don't think, you know, Iwouldn't feel comfortable

(01:02:18):
anything less than that, right?
Some things are just notfeasible yet.
But yet people ask, and I lovethose people, because they're
getting me thinking, and thenthey're getting our PD people
thinking, and then when ourvendors show up, I get them
thinking, say, hey, listen, youknow this thing that you just
showed me?
I need it to dissolve in coldwater.

(01:02:38):
Can you do that?
Oh, we didn't think of that.
We'll get back to you.
And then a couple phone callslater, they figured it out.
Enzymes and probiotics andpostbiotics, I mean, they're
such an art thing.
to this industry that there'sso much tribal knowledge and so
much possibilities that are yetuntapped.

(01:03:02):
So we feel really comfortablethat we can offer people a point
of differentiation no matterwhat road they come in on.

Bobby Hewitt (01:03:12):
Right, there's so many complexities and
modifications needed that reallyyou're there to kind of support
the vision and really drivethat forward.
I mean, that's how innovationhappens, like you described.

Michael Anthonavage (01:03:23):
Yeah.
I mean, we're we stay powders.
Right.
So we're we're capsules,tablets, effervescence, you
know, soft melts, sachets, stickpacks, that kind of stuff, you
know, scoopable stuff.
Completely new science when itcomes to liquids and completely
new science when it comes to thebeverage industry and whatnot,
which does play into the beautycategory.

(01:03:44):
Well, because now you'redrinking your stuff.
And that's kind of where oursgoes in some cases, right?
Especially these ready-to-mixdrinks.
We're also seeing people usestick packs as food toppers,
right?
So you just kind of sprinklethis on top of your Cheerios in
the morning or your eggs.

Interesting.

Eggs and bacon or whatever you're having.

Interesting.

You know, just like in pets, right?
So there's...
It's really endless.
And as I mentioned before, yourproduct can be into two to
three or four different SKUsdepending on the age group
that's using it, right?
So again, you can have the sameproduct, which changes formats

(01:04:32):
along that age transition,changes flavors along that age
transition, changes dosage alongthose age transitions, but it's
still your brand and it's stillyour hero products making the
claims.

Right.
You're just moving along withevery flavor of the market,
really.

You've got to listen to your customer.
You've got to listen to yourcustomer.
I'll tell you the flip side ofsome customers that will walk in
the door and they're like, hey,I want to be in the beauty from
within space, Mike.
I hear you know a lot about it.
Tell me.
And I'm like, well, who's yourcustomer?
Well, you know.

Everybody.

No, I don't know.
Who's your customer?
And I'll take that one stepfurther and I'll say, envision
your product being successfuland walk it back to me.
How did you land there?
Why does it look like that?
Why does it taste like that?
Why does it go in in themorning and not at night.

(01:05:34):
So why, why, why, why, why?
So help.
So then I understand the why,and then I can build the
chassis, and then I could startputting the extras on there,
pinstripes, sunroof, spoilers,and everything to make it snazzy
and fast, car analogy.
So Same thing if you'redecorating your house or

(01:05:56):
whatever analogy you want touse.
I take it out of the scienceunless I'm talking to a
scientist.
If I'm talking to a marketer,then if they don't understand
who their customer is, I got toask myself, why do you call
yourself marketing?

It always comes back to the customer and the
vision you want to build.
A lot of those visions can getstalled because of the
complexity, but it sounds likeyou guys are there to actually
partner with with theentrepreneur help them think
through all those aspects

absolutely we we encourage it our doors are
open anytime and and we don'texpect it to be you know done in
one shot either because we knowthat after our our first
impression is is the mostimportant one and and and we we
members of the team that i'm onhave come up with brilliant

(01:06:47):
ideas i mean we literally haveTasting flights, like you would
go to a brewery and try alltheir different microbrews or a
whiskey house or a cider houseor wine tasting, right?
We'll put together like, youknow, clear proteins flavored
this way or effervescent tabletswith different bloom rates, you
know, to give this visual orsomething that's designed for

(01:07:10):
oral health, right?
Because beauty from withinisn't just skin, hair and nails.
Now it's eyes, it's teeth,right?
You can be the most handsome orbeautiful person on the planet,
but if you've got dog breath, Idon't think people are going to
want to get too close, right?
So oral health is important,right?

(01:07:30):
Gum health, teeth whitening,right?
I know those things kind of getinto structure of functioning
claims, but again, healthy oralcavity.
It's just endless, right?

Yeah, it really comes down to how you feel,
right?
If you feel great, you're goingto look great.

Yeah, and then it's going to come back to
you, right?
So it's positive reinforcement.
There's not many things on theplanet that are positively
reinforced that are good.

That's true.
And supplements and VitaQuestare making that reality.

Yeah, yeah.
So we're super excited aboutwhat's out there.
You know, the whole stressthing, which, you know, in
industrial age, society rightnow, especially with how fast
information flows and the factthat there's really no time
delay anymore from actualevents.

(01:08:27):
This creates a baseline stresslevel that I think is
significantly higher than itused to be before the age of
information technology.
And that ain't going to slowdown anytime soon, right?
Now we've got AI helping usout.
So there's so much informationto manage that AI, I have to use

(01:08:49):
my AI assistant to get throughthe day.
So if there's a reason whyyou're not sleeping, it's
probably because you got bluescreen tattooed on the back of
your retina because you've beenlooking at that all day.
So if you're not sleeping good,we start that story again on
how you're not going to end uplooking too good.
And there are scientificallypublished papers about stress

(01:09:09):
and the way your skin and hairgrow for sure.
I could talk to you for hoursabout that.
But that's the skin, adrenalgland, brain axis, right?
So now we're getting into thesetriangles of organ systems that
matter.
So ingredients likeashwagandha, which didn't have a
play in skin five years ago,now have a play in skin and hair

(01:09:34):
because women will lose hairfaster when they're stressed
out.
There's an alopecia problem.
syndrome associated with that.
There's transepidermal waterloss, which is a measure of how
well your skin is moisturized,is perturbed in college students
who are going through theirfinal exams, couples who are

(01:09:56):
getting married or divorced.
All these daily stressors thatwe're exposed to on a daily
basis have an effect.
And like I said, your skin isthe most evolved organ, so it's
constantly And if you can giveit the tools to be flexible and
adaptive with your hair andeverything else that you're
treating, then you're just goingto be you're going to your

(01:10:19):
wellness is going to follow youinto a ripe old age.
And I think that's that'sreally the goal here.
Right.
It's not how long you live.
It's the quality of life thattakes you there.
Right.
And and that to me is.
It's easy to sell that.
Yeah, it's easy to sell that.

(01:10:40):
I used to teach anatomy andphysiology, and I got to tell
you, it was the best topic toteach in science because who
doesn't want to know how theirbody works?
And as soon as you tell peoplethat I can help you tweak the
way you feel, or I can helptweak the way you look, or I can
help your, you know, you gain alittle more muscle mass or do a
better workout at the gym orget through your day a little

(01:11:04):
less stressed.
Why not?
Why not?
Like, it sells itself.
Yeah.
It really does.
It's an

amazing industry.
I'm just glad.

So I act kind of like an orchestra, you
know, a conductor or, you know,who's the guy in front of the
parade, you know, with the bigstaff, you know.

I know what you mean, but I don't know his name

either.
I don't know what it's called.

Grand marshal, maybe?
I don't know.

Yeah, maybe a grand marshal.
I think they usually float, youknow, they stand on a float
somewhere.
But, you know, like the guyleading the parade, right?
So I'm comfortable in thatposition.
And I think once I get, I like,VitaQuest, in general is an
engaging company, right?
I'm merely a byproduct of itsculture and I'm proud of it.

(01:11:54):
And I think the people that Iwork with are proud of it.
And that really plays throughin our passion for helping
people become successful.

Yeah, it's more than just fulfilling an order.

Yeah, yeah.
Especially from where I sit,right?

So how can people get in touch with VitaQuest if
they're interested in help orlooking for a couple?

Yeah, well, it's as simple as going on our
website, VitaQuest.com.
If you have an idea, there's aform to fill out.
You don't have to have all yourducks in a row to get a
response.
We have a fantastically...
diverse sales team, our productdevelopment folks, we have

(01:12:39):
subspecialties within productdevelopment.
So if you're into proteins andwant some really avant-garde
types of sources and whatnot, wecan get you where you need to
go for sure.
The only thing that kind ofputs limits is the product form,
right?
So we're powders.

(01:12:59):
If you're looking for beveragesor gummies or...
other things outside of ananhydrous format, we're not your
guy.
But we do, you know, we do workwith lipids and beadlets and
vegan capsules and capsules ofall different sizes and
effervescent technology.

(01:13:20):
We have some R&D here thatreally works on clean label
ingredients so we can helpbehind the scenes, things flow
better, which means that you getyour order on time the first
time, which means that we don'tuse a lot of material because
it's sticking and blowing allover the room, which causes us
to clean longer, which causesyour cost to go up because let's

(01:13:43):
face it, you know, all thisstuff has to get done from a GMP
perspective.
And VitaQuest has the highestlevel of quality I've ever seen.
And I've used to run labs andchemistry labs and biology labs
in the past.
And I got to tell you, cominghere, I'm really impressed by
our internal capabilities to doany type of quality control, QA,

(01:14:07):
QC.
If there's a thousandmilligrams of vitamin C in
something, There's a thousandmilligrams that test out of it
two years later, right?
Probiotics, all of it.
We're experts in handling thesetypes of things.
So when we make your product,it's done right the first time.
And that's a good feeling.

That's super important.

Yeah.
Well, thank you so much foryour time.
Bobby, it's been a pleasure.
And thank you for giving me thetime to pontificate.

No, it was a great conversation.
Really enjoyed it.
Thank you, man.
I appreciate it.
Creative Thirst is a directresponse digital agency.
We work with dietary supplementcompanies who are struggling to
maximize the profitability oftheir funnels so they can scale.
We've optimized many dietarysupplement businesses.
And in that time, we'veuncovered the three critical

(01:14:58):
funnels for success.
You can get that free report bygoing to creativethirst.com.
Scroll down to the appropriatesection and click on the blue
Get Your Ebook button.

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