Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome to the Game Changer Unlocked where we sit down with leaders changing how people live, work and perform. I'm your host Brian Fetzer. Today's conversation is about health, trust and life changing decisions. Especially when the traditional system feels kind of out of reach.
Joining Me today is Dr. Ron Ely, Ph.D. cEO CEO and founder of Mexico Bariatric center, one of the most trusted names in bariatric and metabolic surgeries worldwide.
Dr. Yelly built the MBC with a bold make high quality, safe, affordable bariatric care accessible without cutting corners. Based in California, operating out of the state of the art facility in Tijuana, his team has supported more than 30,000 patients through surgery, recovery and long term transformation with life. You know, lifetime aftercare.
And this is not about weight loss, it's about dignity, you know, transparency and giving people real options when their health is on the line.
And I'm excited to unpack the why, the process and the realities behind this incredible work.
Doctor, we appreciate you being on the show and the first question, we talked about this before but what was that transformation that kind of led you in to getting this going?
[00:01:41] Speaker C: I was involved. Well thank you first of all for having me on your show Brian and it's a pleasure to be here.
I was, I got involved early on in.com era and one of the areas that I got involved in was medical tourism. This is early on we're talking about 2007 and this is where I started getting involved with medical tourism in Tijuana for bariatric surgery.
And this happened to be an area that I really found myself being passionate about and I think that made me be more successful from all the other areas that I was involved in at that time. And this is where I started focusing and continuing working.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: I mean it came, it's kind of a passion project for you from what it seems like, which is an amazing know, amazing story.
You know when you talk about trust and anytime surgery that goes on there is, there's a trust factor. If, if your own family member ask why should I believe in your team? How would you explain that?
[00:03:07] Speaker C: You know, because of my involvement from early on. Remember when we talked about medical tourism or getting bariatric surgery in Tijuana back in the time we're talking about 2007 for example, it was a stigma and it was not very, you know, people didn't trust to see, to give their lives and going actually across the border to get their surgery.
And I was there, I was taking patients to the places that I was staying.
I took them to the Doctors that I actually went to the surgery room with them to observe what they're doing.
So every step of the way I knew what they're going through. And this is something I would have put my family through.
So this is how I created that trust. And to this date, I still observe every civil the process, making sure the patients, where they stay, where they get their surgery, who the surgeons are, are all being top notch and being trusted.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: We talked about this, you know, off air.
You know, a lot of viewers hear about osempic and similar GLP1s. In simple terms, how is the medication different from the surgery options that you offer?
[00:04:46] Speaker C: For a long time, the concept of why bariatric surgery is such a miracle, which means you lose weight rapidly, quite a bit of weight in two years, and you keep it off.
And the researchers finally found out all the hormones that are being involved.
And at that time the pharmaceutical started looking at trying to simulate those changes that are naturally occurring in the body. The hormones that are naturally changing because of the surgery.
And one of them is GLP1.
Of course this is a synthetic hormone, but it emulates what happens is one of the effects that is happening because of the surgery.
Remember, in surgery you get restriction and hormonal changes. It resets your metabolic system.
And GLP1 is one of the only, you know, one of the synthetic hormones that the drug companies happen to make. So. But as you see, there are so many other hormones involved and these are not something that you have to keep taking.
Once you wake up from your surgery, you actually have all these happening in your body and it keeps happening.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Wow.
It's interesting.
You've told me that the BMI for some of the patients are pretty wide ranging.
And you mentioned a couple of them that I thought was kind of shocking. A little bit of how much somebody can help the change.
Can you share a little bit about that?
[00:06:45] Speaker C: I'm sorry, what was that with the bmi?
[00:06:49] Speaker B: We talked about BMI last night.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: So. Yeah. And then. So there are so many factors that GLP1 medications are different from bariatric surgery.
It's a miracle medication from the, from the early on human civilization. We always look for a magic pill or injection to take and lose weight. And this is it. I mean, this is a very, you know, advancement of pharmaceutical to be able to make the GLP1 medications.
But it only happens as long as you're taking the medication. It doesn't have all the hormones that are naturally occurring because of surgery.
And we see that these only happening and is only helping people that are in the lower range of bmi.
And remember when, when we talk about BMI body mass index, the surgery help patients that are over 30 BMI and we do surgeries all the way up to 110, 100 BMI and our average BMI is 42. So the GLP1 medication is only helping average of BMI closer to 30.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: So when, when people, you know, what do you, or I should say this, what do you wish that people understood about kind of long term results? I mean medication maintenance versus kind of the surgery, you know, durability.
[00:08:29] Speaker C: Again, this is a permanent solution.
Almost more than 95% of patients reach their goal weight.
This is a total transformation.
I call it a miracle. Because the minute you wake up from your surgery, not only you getting restriction, which means you only can eat so much food at each session, you get all those hormonal changes naturally occurring to your body and you lose weight. The first two years you lose all the weight and you get to your ideal and goal weight.
Whereas medication for example, you have to keep taking it and the minute you stop, you gain weight and more than original.
And as you know, the pharmaceutical are putting huge amount of money giving grants to colleges, pushing doctors to subscribe this.
And they are not telling you all that they know about the medication, which is like you are basically taking your medication for long term. So it has effects on your kidney, all your organs.
And they already saying there are some, you know, side effects on the vision.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Right?
[00:10:00] Speaker C: There could be a cancer, you know, possibility of getting cancer in your thyroid. So there's so many things you lose muscle mass. These are all known, they're all given.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Those, you know, this, the side effects are, are, are probably going to come out more and more.
Let's kind of shift a little bit. And I want to talk about affordability because you know, you know, any kind of anytime you get into the pharmaceutical or surgeries, things could be, can be expensive.
How do you keep high quality but making it, you know, cost effective?
[00:10:44] Speaker C: That's a great question.
If we were to do this surgery at a low volume, we probably have to charge around $10,000. The reason we can offer so low is because of volume. Our volume gives us discount from the hotel, from the hospital, from the surgeon, from the medication.
So everything we buy at a discount rate because of our volume. And if it weren't for a volume, there was no way we could offer this low cost procedures. And remember, this is the expensive procedure. If it's done in us, it can cost about $100,000. I've seen some invoices that was sent to insurance, about $80,000.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Wow, that's. That's staggering to be honest.
Very much so. Hey, well, how do people, you know, learn more about the, the center and you know, how they continue the conversation?
[00:11:53] Speaker C: You know, from the inception, one of the, one of my goals and missions has been to educate patients.
Educate patients about what the bariatric surgery does, what is life after bariatric surgery and what is our center about?
What are we doing, what can we do for them and how they can trust us.
Actually, we call them at NBC. We know what we're doing because we've been doing this for so many years.
Our staff are not like rookies. And so since the inception, that has been my goal. We've been doing seminars all over US, Canada.
I just came back from New Zealand where we had seminars with our chief surgeon and our coordinators and we went there and educated people again about two things. What is bariatric surgery do for me and what is MBC can do for me?
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Is there a website that somebody could go to or if they wanted to have the surgery they knew somebody that wanted to take place, how could they reach out to you?
[00:13:12] Speaker C: We have made this process very simple. It's like 1, 2, 3, you go to MexicanBadiatricCenter.com and there is a link that says fill out a health questionnaire.
Once you submit that, we're like a telehealth. Actually, we are like the beginning of telehealth. When we do all this through our complex routines and software. We connect the patients with our surgeon, liaison with our surgeon, we get their approval and then we send them the link. They can literally sign themselves up by clicking on that, paying the deposit and getting on the calendar. If not, our coordinators are always there to help them do that.
Once they put in the calendar, they arrange for their travel, their paperwork, they're on their way to go. You pick them up from the airport or if they drive, they're on their way from the rest. We take care of everything that there is.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: It's pretty simple and pretty straightforward. I love it.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Every day.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Thank you so much for your honesty and really your compassion and the clarity to a topic that so many people approach really with fear and kind of confusion. And today's conversation reminds us that, you know, healthcare decisions shouldn't be rushed. They should be shamed or hidden behind fine print. They should be grounded in safety, education and honestly, long term support. So to our viewers, whether you're considering surgeries, medicine or gathering just simply gathering information for yourself, for your loved ones. Remember, ask a lot of questions and come the right way and it's going to help you out tremendously.
We will be right back right after this break with more and our next guest foreign.
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Our next guest is student athlete turned entrepreneur. Tanner Maddox played football at Villanova while launching a media and athlete focused ventures. He's a creator of media icon, the force behind Athlete Squared, and he's channeling those lessons into a new consumer brand.
Tanner Unbelievable to get a chance to talk and kind of walk through your story and your journey because it, I know the first time I heard it I thought it was a fiction tale and not real life, to be honest.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Thanks for having me.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: So, you know, let's roll the trail of your story. How do you connect the dots between Villanova football, which played in the semifinals, so a very successful football program, to building media and business?
How does that connect those dots? That doesn't seem to make sense for the normal college student.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I started, as you mentioned, a company called Athlete Squared. And the way that that got started was is my journey to college that actually created that platform. It was a platform to connect young athletes with college athletes for training. And I grew up in a very rural area, not a lot of options for training. So I went to figure out how to train and I the way I did it was I just found college athletes online that I wanted to be like that. I wanted to follow in their footsteps. And I trained by watching their highlight reels and and the plays that they were making.
And then I got to college and Il was a thing. Making money was a thing, but it wasn't for what I thought it was, which was it was really for the top 1% of athletes. So I created this platform to provide a way for college athletes to monetize who they were, where they were, and all the work that they've put in up to that point.
And then after building that for about three years, we had an offer to be acquired by a company that was based out of la.
And from that we ended up saying no, just different views on where the platform would go from there. They came back to us about marketing the platform because we had really good social presence for athlete Squared. We ended up helping them and from taking them from not even having an account on Instagram or TikTok to over 140 million views in about four months, which kind of kicked off our media company, which became media icon.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: So. Okay, let's go even go back more. Before college, was there a first moment you realized I like building things?
You know, school project, a side hustle, something of that nature?
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Yeah. I grew up in a household I got. I have four brothers and a sister. We grew up on a farm.
And there was no, like, I didn't get a cell phone till I was 16. So for us there wasn't much stuff you could do other than being outside playing sports or being inside playing board games or different things like that. So I grew this love for the game Monopoly.
I thought it was so fascinating. It was fun to play with my brothers.
And then from that, I, for some reason thought investors were the coolest people in the world. So I decided to build a board game. And that was kind of like when I started to build that board game, I wanted it to be realistic. So I bought a whole bunch of books on investing that were definitely way beyond my years as an 11 year, 11 year old. But that was probably the first thing that as I built that, it took years to build.
I found out how expensive it is to build prototypes and different things like that. But I built that for almost three years. I actually, I actually have a complete prototype at my house still. It's just collecting dust at this point. But that was probably the first venture that I did, if you want to call it a venture, something that I built that I was like, wow, I really enjoy this process of like learning and iterating.
And I built that from, you know, 11 till I was about 14, 15 years old, till I got to a final product and never actually did anything with it. But it definitely sparked this desire to build something, imagine it in my head, but then build it and go and take the steps to do that and research. And I would say that's probably the first, first thing that I did that really sparked this entrepreneurial bug inside of me.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: I can see that coming as something again soon.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: I. I've always talked about finishing that as like, you know, maybe like my life, just like to bring it all back to full circle. I. I've talked about finishing that, getting a patent for it.
I Still love the concept when I tell people, they're like, you should make that into a thing. I just, I don't have time at the moment, but maybe one day.
So. Okay, let's.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: Let's go back now. We found out the, the origin story and now the real story. Now you're playing college football, which, which I did. And there's not a whole lot of time to do a whole lot else other than play college football and study.
What's a normal week like for you? Because I can't even imagine playing, studying. Oh, by the way, you're married and have a child and also running businesses. I give us somewhat of an insight on that because that's crazy.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, you know, the one thing I'm really good at is saying no. I think I have no other option with where I put myself. I guess I kind of self inflicted there. But you know, I. There's certain things that I just, I don't do and I cannot do.
And you know, one of those is having much of a social life. You know, I know that's a big thing for most people in colleges.
You know, they want to go out and go to bars or do different things. And for me, that's not something I can do. I don't really have a desire to either. I got married at 18 years old. A little different path in life.
But a typical week for me is, you know, we have a game on Saturday, Sunday we're back in, we watch film.
Sundays are usually days that I spend with, with my wife and my daughter, as well as Mondays. Those are usually our two days. So we have Mondays off from football. We have optional lift in the morning that, you know, everybody goes to. It's not really optional, but do that Monday mornings, but then the rest of the day I'm off.
I usually do pack in my schedule with school, so I have to be very strategic about my school schedule. So I set it up almost like high school where instead of spreading multiple classes or five classes over an entire week, I handle them all on usually two days a week, either Tuesday, Thursday, or if I. For a certain semester, I'll do a Monday, Wednesday, I'll have no class the other three days of the week.
That way I can do film study and prep. I just knock everything out. Be as efficient as possible as far as school work goes.
I typically would watch anywhere from like 20 to 30 hours of film a week or that would kind of be my target. So I was constantly watching film and a lot of that was just sitting on the couch with my wife and, you know, having it on the screen. And that was like our way of like being, you know, for me being home and being around rather than being in the, the football offices, you know, watching film.
And I usually would just wake up early. So either that's where I would get my film is I'd wake up. So, you know, I'm not taking time away from my wife or taking time away from things that I need to do in the afternoon. I'd wake up in the morning and go in before practices and watch film or if I had to do any type of schoolwork, I, I try to use the mornings efficiently. I'm, I'm typically, you know, up relatively early anyway, so I like to get my work done in the morning. But this past week you mentioned semifinal or going to the semifinals. I'll tell a quick story about what my scheduling looked like for this past week prior to our game. So we played a game in our quarterfinal game in Texas against Tarleton State. We won that game. We fly back. We were there Friday, Saturday, won the game Saturday, flew back, got back around midnight.
Sunday we're back in the morning.
That morning we have film, we watched everything typical Sunday and then we're off in the afternoon. We get done around like three o' clock and then we're, we're free basically from there.
So at about 4:00 clock I had a flight or, sorry, at 4:00 clock, I, I drove down to North Carolina to go to meet our manufacturer for the company Agape, which I guess we'll get into, but get back Monday after. So I didn't go to the lift that we had that morning. I talked to our coaches, got back on Monday in the afternoon practice, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
And then Thursday I flew out to Los Angeles for. I had to meet with our formulation team out in California and then flew back, got. Got back at 7:30 in the morning Saturday and then had our game at 7:30pm that same Saturday. So my life is always changing and shifting.
You know, it's not an easy thing to do.
The good thing is I'm young and I can operate on a little bit of sleep at this point in my life.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: I would say you have to. So, okay, so if I gave you an index card and you could hand it to the freshman year Tanner, what would it say?
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Probably it's just going to be a lot, you know, like, I definitely, I think that's, it's part of, I think it's something that I, I mention it a lot is like, almost like a superpower. I know. It's actually something that Tom Brady talks about is how is like naiveness is almost like it's a trait that helps him succeed.
Is just thinking that I can manage being a husband, being a. A dad, being a student and an athlete, you know, as well as running a business. I think there has to be a little bit of naiveness.
But I definitely think that would be my note to myself. That's not something that usually scares me. It just prepares me of just knowing, like, okay, this is going to be a lot and I need to, you know, I need to say no to a lot of things. I need to be super efficient in the way that I work. You know, I don't play video games, I don't scroll. I don't do any of that stuff. I just, you know, I enjoy my work. So it being a lot isn't something that I shy away from. It just would be. It'd be good to know it before I started.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: What a great foundation because this is going to lead us into our next topic, which is we're going to dig into the new venture. If you only needed something else to kind of add to. We're going to dive into Agape Energy on the next.
Next part on the game changer unlocked.
Welcome back.
Let's talk Agape.
What is it? Why does it exist and how Tanner plans to launch it right away? I mean, I mean, when I say right away, I mean right away. He's building a product that aims to deliver clean energy values, focused brand that, you know, designed for students, athletes, and really everyday kind of grinders who want to. Want to focus without the crash.
So I'm excited, Tanner, to talk about this because this is.
We've already talked about you playing college football. We've already talked about you building not only one company, but two companies. And now we're going to venture into something that's completely different.
You're talking about nutrition. You're talking about sports nutrition specifically.
How did that even come about?
To think that, hey, hey, I want to build an energy drink and I want to build it with a purpose and a mission kind of behind it.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Yeah, the road to it was definitely interesting.
At the same time, it happened very, very quickly.
I had the idea because I, I drink energy drinks a decent amount.
You know, I more so drink them honestly, out of enjoyment than anything.
I. I just enjoy. I enjoy, enjoy energy drinks. And I was with a friend of mine and I was drinking that energy drink while we were hanging out, and he was Asking about it. And I, I found myself almost like defending the drink because I liked, you know, that it was a little bit healthier than the other stuff out there. Had great taste.
Um, and I really, it really got me thinking about just like these, these things that we attach ourselves to, these products that we carry with us. You know, for me as a college athlete, like Penn State, we're playing it this year.
You know, I was carrying it to our meetings in the hotel, to the game in the locker room. And there's other guys like me on our team that do the same thing.
And I was really thinking about, you know, as part of like, almost like I identify with the brand and the brand identifies with me.
And for me, something that is central to my life is my faith. It's the reason that I got married as young as I did. It's the reason that I build the companies the way that I do. And I was thinking about, man, if I could carry a brand around that represented that side of me which didn't exist, I was like, that'd be a really cool idea. But at the same time, I had a bunch of different stuff going on in my life. And I was like, I don't have the time for this. So I always use the joke of I have these ideas all the time. I throw them in my notes app and that's where they die.
This one decided it didn't want to die. So I put in my notes app and it just, I felt like it just constantly kept coming up and it just became something that I was like, like just constantly praying about of. Like, is this something that I should be going after?
Because I also, like I said earlier, I had to learn to say no to things to be able to pursue what I wanted to do. And I knew that if I decided to pick this up and go with it, I would have to say no and. And leave a lot of things behind. And so I was really praying about it. I felt like I got the answer to take one step to go and build what is now agape energy.
I posted the first video on a brand new account. The account was about 10 minutes old and the only person that knew I was posting about it was my wife.
I had no prior experience in CPG or creating products or anything like that. My background was all technology or marketing, but I just felt like this is something that I was being called to do. And so I made a post, and that post is actually over a million views now.
And it kind of led to what is next. And I've had to make a lot of changes and a lot of different changes and leave a lot of things behind to go and build this now.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: So, okay, let's break it down. Like we're in the kitchen. What's in it, what's out of it and kind of. Why did you put those choices together?
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, you know, again, ingredients. I think we're living in a world that's moving more towards being health conscious. And I think that's awesome. I think that's a great place to be. And as an athlete, you are extremely health conscious because there's certain energy drinks that were actually, as college athletes, not allowed to drink because of certain ingredients that are in them. And I grew up on a farm where it was like, you know, we were, you know, eating what came off of our farm, eating off the land. And so for us, we always grew up as kids with this concept of like, eat super healthy, eat very clean. And the effects that it had on our body were, you know, definitely prevalent in our lives. And so with this, that was kind of the same angle is like, what can we do to build a drink and craft a drink that that is just has exactly what it needs and it doesn't have all the extra stuff. It doesn't add in as many artificial things that just don't need to be there.
So as far as what's in the drink, we have green tea extract, which is our caffeine.
It is a longer lasting, it absorbs over a longer period of time into your body rather than the artificial stuff or other types of caffeine that, you know, you get a spike in energy and then it crashes green. The green tea extract slowly absorbs by your body over time, giving you better, more clean and as well as just not having that crash that caffeine drinks give people.
We have no artificial colors as well as no artificial preservatives. So we're using tunnel pasteurization, which is a heating and cooling process to kill bacteria, rather than putting a bunch of artificial preservatives into the drink.
As far as sweeteners go, we do have an artificial sweetener in there mixed with our main sweetener, which is honey. We've tried a bunch of different variations, but honey ended up we tried going all honey and honey and monk fruit and stevia and it gives a weird aftertaste.
So in order to preserve taste, we had to go with a little bit of sucralose with our second main ingredient behind water, which is honey.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: That's good. I mean, when you start you certain Things you said kind of spark, you know, thought process to me. And trust matters in this space.
So walk me through kind of a little bit more this kind of steps. I mean, you talked about the sourcing with. With green tea.
Labeling is a big part.
Talk me through the label. Because when somebody says agape, I don't think really most people would know what agape is. Just off, off the top.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So agape is the Greek word used in the Bible in John 3:16, where it says, for God so loved the world, that version of love in the Greek is agape. And agape is this unconditional sacrificial love that was shown through Christ dying on the cross. So that's where the word comes from as far as agape.
And that's our mission behind what we're doing. So like every can we'll have, you know, a Bible verse that ties to the graphic that ties to the flavor. So for example, we have Philippians 4:13. For I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me with David and Goliath as the graphic on the can. And the flavors, Mighty Mango. The other two flavors are Preaching peach as well as Blessed Berry. So that's kind of like the idea behind what we're doing on the can. So we're tying it all back and then also having clean ingredients. We only have we. We have under 10 ingredients in our drinks, just keeping them as clean as possible as well as, you know, we're driving for a mission, but also a purpose as well.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: So let's talk launch mode. Where will somebody find agape first? And. And what does, you know, day one look like on your end when you get it launched?
[00:34:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So we're getting closer every single day, which is awesome. So our formulation team. So we work with the formulation team that did Bang Energy and Ghost Energy as well as they're going to be designing our cans and everything like that. We're actually through to final formulation now. So we're about to get our final ingredients and recipes and everything that we need to go to our co packer.
So we'll actually have product around February, January into early February of this year, which is super exciting. We're really just is a super fast timeline from when we first started, which was September 29th was the day that I made that post, to now having finalized formulas and getting ready for the next steps. But we sell online right now it's just ww.drinkagape.com or drinkagapenergy.com and we also will be in a store called Miller's in Ohio. They have seven locations there as well as they have some locations in Indiana and we're working on some other stores in Ohio as well. But we're working on small chain first as well as direct to consumer through our website through TikTok shop, which we'll be launching in the coming weeks as well.
[00:35:27] Speaker B: Well, it really sounds like community is, is a superpower, right? You know, you know, small teams, small groups, you know, finding that best fit, you know. Have you found out anything interesting with the social media posts that kind of, kind of could took you off guard a little bit?
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, you know, for me, I have never been somebody who likes to be on camera. I can tell you how to be on camera, I can tell you how to make content, but being on camera is just something that I have never really enjoyed doing. And I'm starting to break that wall down a little bit.
But two days into posting, we had two videos that were going viral and we had people asking to pre order our drinks, which doesn't sound uncommon, but when you don't have ingredients, flavors, designs or delivery date yet at that point, and zero experience in the space, it's a little early, but people were insisting on it, they wanted to pre order. So we decided to open it up and we listed that all out. No ingredients, no flavors, no designs and no delivery date. But if you want to pre order and help us get this thing, you can.
And social media is, you know, great. It's a great platform to reach people. Sometimes the conversions can be all over the place, but after launching, we had three videos posted by the time we opened up the store.
Within 20 hours, we had customers in every state in the country, which blew my mind just how fast we were able to go from a concept in my brain to a nationwide brand at that point, I guess you can say.
And so that really shocked me. And then as we've continued to grow over socials and we've reached, you know, over 10 million people just through organic posting to see the people that rally behind what we're doing, we're allowing people to be part of the process, picking the names. So the names that we, you know, that I listed earlier, the community was the one that decided that they were commenting on our post. We'd ask them what they wanted to name things, and then we ran a poll. And this, this stat is actually mind boggling to me with how long I've been in social media. But we had around 44,000 followers at the time when we decided that we were going to let everybody vote on what names they wanted for the drinks.
Typically you have about 10% of people see a story. 20% would be really, really good on an Instagram story. We had 44,000 followers. We had 27,000 people vote on what flavor names they wanted.
And that's just a testament to having a community and building a community.
And that's our goal with this, is just to continue to build a community that's super involved.
And again, that's, that's what's different about Agape versus, you know, any other drink out there. Is there is a community behind this that is getting behind the mission and the purpose that, that this entire energy drink is being built around.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: That's amazing. Again, if somebody wants to, to order it, even preorder it, where can they do that? Where can they find out information? Is there social media that they can find out the latest of Agape?
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah, so we keep everything updated. Instagram's the main platform, so our handle is at Drink Agape Energy, which is also our website. So ww.drink agape energy.com that's our tags across TikTok, YouTube, everything else. Our main platform being Instagram. We're constantly running updates there on our stories and then constantly making posts and such like that. So those are the best two places, our website and our Instagram, to be informed on where we're at with things and make orders.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Man, Tanner, this is, this has been pretty amazing. I'm excited to take the next dive and talk a little bit of lessons about building, you know, while you're young. And maybe you can give us a simple 30 day plan a student founder might be able to copy. We'll be back right after this with a Game Changer a unlocked.
Welcome back to the Game Changer Unlocked. This is the final round. Nuts and bolts, decisions, routines that protect your energy and a starter plan for some new founders.
I've got Tanner Maddox, who is an entrepreneur, a college football player, a husband, a father. You just kind of name it all. And guess what? He's not in his 30s. He's young.
You know, he's really lived, you know, a life of balance and practical moves, you know, really that anybody can copy, to be honest.
So let's talk fuel. Tanner, are you bootstrapping, partnering, you know, raising funds right now? You know, how, how does that all kind of fit in in building Agape Energy?
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Yeah, so we actually, we raised around because what I learned about very quickly learned about the beverage industry is it is super cash intensive upfront. So to do formulation, to do design, all that stuff even before you get to getting product. You know, all of that is, is due up front. So we ended up raising capital.
You know, that was kind of like our, our way there as well as, you know, bootstrapped. Pretty much like the first aspect to get everything started and then we gained enough traction that, that raising capital became an option for us and it went really, really well and happened very quickly.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: I, I can, I can only imagine, I mean is when you said you really started things in September.
So I mean if, you know, if you're looking at a calendar, we're not even out of, you know, 2025 yet. So that's a really short period of time.
You know, what's, what's next in the steps or the evolution of the company or the, or the brand. You've got it coming out.
Are you hiring people? Are you scaling it that way? Are you guys keeping it tighten in a tight circle?
[00:41:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, it's funny is that, that's really one of the things that I learned very, very quickly building the other companies is, is you do want to stay as small as possible for as long as possible.
You know, I think with this it will inevitably get large rather quickly. But you know, to be able to iterate quickly, which is something that's so important as a business, to be able to make a phone call and about, you know, the matter of 30 seconds and call a few different people rather than having to set up a team meeting or something like that, is the difference between, you know, a week or a month in, in a timeline. So for us we're going to try to keep this as small as possible for as long as possible.
Our next step is really just like the distribution aspect. You know, we're not looking to go retail until about 2027.
You know, we don't want to get in and over our heads at this point. So that's why we're staying like the, the small mom and pops or chains under a hundred, you know, locations is kind of what we're targeting, you know, as like our next steps. We'll start that probably like this summer. But right now our focus is just continuing to build the direct to consumer. So for us we're going to put a lot more effort into social media. Not to say that we haven't put that effort in but to create high, you know, more high quality content as well as partnering with influencers. So for us that's something that we already started. Right now as we're building out a List of influencers that align with our brand, that align with our mission. And we're going to be sending them just PR packs as we get into production in February around that timeline.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Amazing. Okay, scoreboard time now. What are three numbers that tell you agape is working?
You know, think repeat buys, retail sales trials, referral rates. What does your scoreboard look like?
[00:43:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say, I mean, the biggest one is, you know, we are the 15th most followed energy drink in the world, and we don't even have a product yet.
I mean, we started literally, I guess today is three months into December 29th. We're shooting this on.
We started on the first post, went out on September 29th. So, you know, to. To climb that quickly to. To this, the place where we're at is the 15th most solid energy drink in the world is. Is pretty significant as well as. I just think having customers in every state in the country as well. 17 other countries, I think the 17 other countries is almost more impressive given the fact that each of those people is spending about close to $70 in shipping for a $29 item. I think that just shows, like, how. How much value this adds to people's lives, what problem we are actually solving for.
Which sounds weird as a drink, but we really are. We're. We're appealing to people that much, and they have a desire to just carry our drink. Drink. Our drink out there. So I think those two are huge. And honestly, I really think the next. The next stat, and this is maybe not a stat, but We've had over 2,000 preorders since we started, and we've only had. I think we're under 15 people have returned orders. There's been a few reasons, and one of them I actually think is the greatest reason to ever return anything, which is a kid saw our content and ordered a case while he was at college and then went back home and found out his mom saw the same video and bought him a pack for when he got home.
So he ended up returning one of them, which was awesome. But just stats like that, things like that, where we get to run into people in public and people are telling us about how they're telling their friends and different things like that. I think those stats right there, as far as how fast we've grown, how far we've spread, as well as how much people care about agape energy, which is again, still not even in production yet.
[00:45:03] Speaker B: That's so amazing. So when. When. When somebody says to you, because I'm sure you've heard this, you're too young or, you know, the market's too crowded.
What's your go to response?
[00:45:19] Speaker A: I think, I mean, there's a few things. I mean, the number one thing is like, I got married at 18 years old. That's super uncommon.
If I ever get the. You're too young. I usually bring that up. My wife and I, we have a great marriage. People. I talk about business a lot.
If you're close to me, you know, I talk about my wife more than anything.
So I usually use that as my example is like, yeah, I was too young to get married at 18 as well. And I have, you know, I have a great marriage. I have a, I have a healthy daughter. I, you know, we have a beautiful daughter.
So that's like my first go to. Um, but, but truthfully is just like, you know, I, I'm not afraid of failure and age is, in my opinion and just a number. Um, I think we live in the greatest age ever right now is I grew up in a world where I am, I'm a tech native. Um, and that's what our world is revolving around right now. As you look at AI and all these other things, I always say one of my favorite lines is, the Internet is a great thing if you know how to use it. Um, a lot of people use it just to search random things or to look up stats or to watch games, but you can use the Internet and learn anything you want as fast as possible. And AI is just only accelerating that. So as a young person, I think you actually have the advantage over everybody else. You're a tech native. You know how to use AI, you know how to make prompts, you know how to, you know, manage social media, you know what you like, what you don't like. And I think that's actually a huge advantage. I think, you know, the younger you start, the better off you are. I make a ton of mistakes, but if I start at 20 years old and I make the same amount of mistakes as you do, if you start at 30, you know, we're, we're going to be in very different places. So I think starting young is, is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your career and your path.
Let's.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: It's kind of. Since you mentioned your path and kind of the mistakes and so forth, how your week's obviously packed, crazy packed on a regular basis. How are you kind of protecting, you know, yourself from burnout?
What's your, what's your center point? Like, what are you trying to, how are you gonna get Back to that, Hey, I can't get burned out, but I'm making a ton of mistakes.
[00:47:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I think it's, again, it's just like, it's the same thing as the energy drink is, you know, although the energy drink is, is built around a specific mission and purpose.
Even building Athlete Squared, building, you know, media icon, the center is always the same, which is just that Christ is the center of my life. And for me, I'm building something because I feel like this is, you know, something that is a God given gift and I want to use that to the best of my ability. I don't want to be somebody that, you know, is lazy with a gift that God has given them. So for me, that's what I am rooted in. So when I am working, you know, I am working, you know, unto the Lord, you know, so for me is like, I'm going to make mistakes, but if I'm truly pursuing, you know, God in the way that I am building my business, then when I fall, he's there to pick me up. Right. And so for me there is no burnout because for me it's just, I am just doing what I feel like is, you know, a purpose. And that's one of the things. And the reason that I moved on from Athlete Squared is like for me that was something that I loved. It was a passion of mine. I love football, I love sports, but God will always be my purpose and purpose will always be passion. And I think a lot of people go into building a business and they have the passion for or whatever it may be, whether it's being recognizable or making money. And those things burn out over time. Those things burn out, but purpose does not. And so I think that's where a lot of people get things twisted is they're like, I don't know how I'm burning out. It's usually because it was built on a passion, which passion's changed over time. We change as people, our taste changes over time, but our purpose and my purpose will never change, which is just to serve God in the way that I do things.
[00:48:56] Speaker B: Awesome.
When you kind of giving somebody that's in your shoes a student founder, ready to start right now, what would be like a 30 day plan or a week by week kind of step? What could they do to kind of get things rolling if they wanted to have that, that entrepreneurial spirit?
[00:49:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is finding a problem worth solving. I think a lot of people, they. It's one of my favorite books. It's called fall in love with the problem, not the solution. And I think a lot of people build this solution right in their head and they build that and then they bring the problem to them. There's a concept that Seth Godden talks about in his book called this is marketing, where instead of building a million different, you know, locks to unlock, find one lock and then build the key to unlock it. And that's the concept is find a, find a problem worth solving.
You know, and the problem we solve at agape, just as an example, right. Is we're solving the problem of identity, right? People that want to hold this candidate, that want to share this message and this mission with other people, there is nothing out there for that.
For athletes squared, we're solving the problem. For young athletes that, you know, don't have local training or something like that, but they want to play at the next level, they now have a college athlete they can train with. And then on the flip side, for the college athlete, they want to monetize themselves, but they don't know how to. Right? They can now monetize who they are, right? So working backwards, starting with the problem and then working to the solution is definitely the first thing is that's the best way to set yourself up for success right away. The second thing is move faster than anybody. Speed is one of your biggest advantages.
You know, if you're moving in a, in a crowded market, moving faster, that's one of our, that's the reason that we want to say small is there. There's so many energy drinks out there in the world. But if we can move faster than everybody else that has 100 plus employees, you know, we can win. That's where we can find our advantages, through being quick, through iterating fast, by appealing to our customers as quickly as possible and making the changes, solving the problem as fast as possible. So I think that's the first step which comes with talking to customers. I think, you know, over the 30 days, I think a lot of people make the mistake of they'll talk to customers and then they stop. There needs to be this constant talking to customers. Again, like I said, things and their ideas will change over time. And you always want to have your finger on the pulse as far as that goes.
But again, action always beats, you know, or like action will always be trying to figure out the perfect way to execute on something.
And I think like a lot of people focus on trying to make this perfect plan and then work towards, okay, now I can start moving towards execution. I think it needs to be action over, you know, over trying to figure out the ideal plan. Because I'll tell you right now, in the world of business, nothing ever goes as planned. But again, I think it's a huge testament of, like, we started bringing in pre orders before we even had an idea of how to build the product. And that's a great thing to do. And a great thing to a great problem to have is I think a lot of people build a product and then try to find people to sell it to rather than sell a product that doesn't even exist and then bring the product into existence, which is the best way to do it.
[00:52:05] Speaker B: Mantana, that wasn't just advice for a student. That's advice for anybody that's trying to start a business and get things going. So I thank you so much for being on the show today.
Amazing insight and amazing just. You just make me shake my head and go wow all the time.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: I appreciate that.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: Absolutely. So for Dr. Ron Ely and Tannermatics, thank you both for being our guests today. To our viewers, take a small step. You know, wherever you are in your journey, don't just be an observer. Start changing the game.
I'm Brian Fetzer, and this is the game changer unlocked. See you next week.
