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How I Built a $1B Brand in My 20s — Transcript

by Greg Lav · 6,209 words · 981 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00When your attention isn't divided, your
0:02decisions get sharper.
0:04Your execution gets smoother. It [music]
0:06gets faster.
0:10If you're going to go after something,
0:12you might as well go after something
0:13huge. You have to give up the
0:15good for the great. There's nothing
0:16wrong with that. It will feel weird, and
0:18the people around you will probably tell
0:20you you're being crazy. Tell them, "I'm
0:22young, [music] and I want more for
0:24myself and my family and my team and my
0:25community."
0:27Hello. My name is Greg LeVekia. I am the
0:29co-founder and CEO of Bloom.
0:32I have been for about 8 years now. I've
0:34been in entrepreneurship or an
0:35entrepreneur for about a decade now.
0:37>> [music]
0:38>> This year Bloom will sell over a quarter
0:40billion cans of beverages with a Bloom
0:43trademark on the can. That is rounding
0:45down quite a bit.
0:47>> [music]
0:47>> And
0:48I co-founded the company with my wife. 8
0:51years ago, I started entrepreneurship
0:52with my wife out of our college dorm
0:54room a decade ago. And turning 31
0:57yesterday, I now have a son. I'm
1:00married. [music]
1:00I'm sitting in the backyard of our
1:03vacation home here in Aspen, Colorado.
1:05>> [music]
1:05>> I reside generally in Austin, Texas.
1:08And there are a lot of lessons that I
1:10have learned in the last 10 years or
1:12throughout my 20s that if I had learned
1:15them earlier in my 20s, [music]
1:17I would be even further ahead than I am
1:19today. And if there's one thing that I
1:21would love to do with my time in my 30s,
1:24it is pass down the wisdom that I have
1:27acquired through
1:29receiving scars on my body,
1:31receding hairline, gray hairs, wrinkles
1:34on my face, sleepless nights. If I
1:36[music] can save some of y'all the
1:38tribulations that had to come with that
1:40and just give you the [music] lessons
1:43ahead of time,
1:44I
1:45would love to see the next generation
1:48achieve the things that I have achieved
1:50even faster than I have. And that is how
1:53I will pass down the torch to the future
1:56generation of entrepreneurs. I have
1:57about three lessons or I don't know how
2:00many I have, a few lessons that I want
2:01to go through today. Hopefully, I will
2:03establish some value for you guys. You
2:05know, your 20s are a wild year cuz you
2:06might not know if you're headed in the
2:08right direction. You might feel like you
2:10are headed in a direction fast, but it
2:11might be the wrong way.
2:13You might have no idea what you're up to
2:16and I don't even know if all these
2:17lessons will be something that you can
2:18apply today, [music]
2:19but I hope that you can remember them
2:21and they will pop up
2:24when it when a scenario presents [music]
2:26itself in your universe. It might be
2:29tomorrow. It might be in a year. It
2:30might be in 3 years [music]
2:32and you will remember this lesson and
2:33say, "Wait,
2:34Greg told me this may happen and now I
2:36know how to react."
2:37>> [music]
2:37>> So, let's get into it. This is the
2:39advice
2:41that I would give myself if I was in my
2:4320s now and I believe I would be further
2:46along than I am today
2:47>> [music]
2:47>> if I heard this in my early 20s.
2:50One of the biggest advantages that I had
2:52in my 20s was [music] recognizing when
2:54it was time to level up. And the
2:57simplest analogy that I can give to this
3:00is
3:00>> [music]
3:00>> when we grew up playing video games like
3:02a Grand Theft Auto and you would unlock
3:04pieces of the map, there were certain
3:06kids who just loved continuing to play
3:09the game [music] when they beat the
3:10game. That's not how you should play
3:11life. Once you beat a game, you should
3:14move on to a more challenging, higher
3:17risk, higher reward game next.
3:20You will have lessons from the previous
3:22game that you played that you will have
3:23to apply to the more challenging game
3:25that you are now going to face and they
3:27are necessary to level up one by one.
3:30You will not become the man that you
3:32want to be in the speed of pace that you
3:34want to become that man if you do not
3:37regularly level up the battlefield that
3:40you are playing in.
3:41I have seen many entrepreneurs stick to
3:44the venture that they found out of
3:45college or out of high school or
3:47whenever they started their
3:48entrepreneurship journey.
3:50They get to a place where they're making
3:51some okay money, it's going fine, and
3:53they just stick doing that. And that's
3:55fine for them. But if your goals are to
3:58push yourselves to the limits, to figure
4:00out what are you capable of, [music] how
4:02big can you make this? If you truly
4:04believe that you want to make your life
4:06a moonshot and sit down at 75 years old
4:09and say, "Shit, I did it." Then
4:11you should look in the mirror every 6
4:12months
4:13>> [music]
4:13>> and not even be able to recognize the
4:15man looking back at you. And so how that
4:16looked in my career
4:18is Mari and I started a brand called
4:20Mari Fitness when we were still in
4:22college. She had dropped out of college,
4:23I was finishing my degree, graduated
4:26college with a 2.6.
4:28We weren't exactly academics. We didn't
4:29have any [music] money to start with, so
4:30we started with a business that cost no
4:32money to start, which was selling
4:33instant download PDFs.
4:35We scaled that business to a couple
4:37million bucks a year, and we used it to
4:39over-provide value for our community.
4:41[music]
4:41And then our first physical product,
4:43once we had some saved up money, was the
4:44booty band. Everyone wanted a giant ass
4:47in 2018, whatever year it was. And so my
4:50whole life was working with Pakistan or
4:52Pakistani manufacturers, and we sold
4:55millions of booty bands.
4:57Maybe a million. A million booty bands,
4:58but they're 20 bucks a pop. So we had a
5:00hell of a booty band business. [music]
5:01And we took everything we learned from
5:03the PDF business and applied that to the
5:05physical product business, [music] but
5:07now learned about physical product
5:08supply chain.
5:10At that point we were starting to gain
5:11validation with our consumers, and our
5:13community asked us to provide
5:15supplements for them. They said, "You
5:17guys make great products. I would love
5:19to try some supplements from you guys
5:20cuz there's nothing else that I'm
5:21enjoying." So we launched Bloom. We
5:23launched Bloom with a pre-workout for
5:24women who lifted weights and were trying
5:26to lose body fat or, you know, lose lose
5:28weight. That business was great, but
5:30needless to say there's never really
5:31been
5:32a $100 million female pre-workout
5:34[music] business. There's There's a low
5:36ceiling to the female pre-workout
5:38business. And so once we maxed out But
5:40it's a higher ceiling than booty bands.
5:42So once we maxed out that business,
5:44>> [music]
5:44>> we went to the recovery powders, and
5:46then we went to the greens powder. So,
5:47we unlocked a whole new possible total
5:50addressable market with the greens
5:51[music] powder, and we bootstrapped that
5:53to $180 million.
5:55And then, of course, we said, [music]
5:56you know, I don't think there's much
5:57more space left in this green business.
6:00We kind of beat the game. We've learned
6:02so much from this game, and our
6:03community has gained so much trust in us
6:05because of how much value we've provided
6:07through this product. [music]
6:09So, we did the unthinkable, and
6:10we said, we're going to launch an energy
6:11drink and go after the Monsters
6:13and Red Bulls and Seltzers of the world.
6:15And we applied everything we had
6:17learned,
6:18and everything that we [music] didn't
6:19learn, we brought in strategic partners.
6:21And now, we have energy drinks on Dr.
6:23Pepper trucks in 70,000 doors in the
6:25country. And of course, we also have
6:26this soda in about 40,000 doors in the
6:28[music] country. So,
6:30it's easy for me to sit here today and
6:32sip this Shirley Temple in front of you
6:33and say,
6:34this is where I'm at now. But the
6:36reality is is everything that has gone
6:39into this product,
6:40>> [music]
6:40>> and everything that has gone into the,
6:41you know, half a billion-dollar energy
6:43drink brand that we have today, were
6:45lessons that we had learned from the
6:47PDFs, the booty bands, the greens
6:50powder, the pre-workouts. And it was an
6:51accumulation of all of that knowledge to
6:54become
6:56the beasts that could create this very
6:58competitive beverage company.
7:01It would have been very easy and
7:03comfortable for us to stay just selling
7:05booty bands, for us to stay just selling
7:07greens powders. There's one crucial
7:08point that I potentially admitted from
7:10that,
7:11which is when you move on to the next
7:13challenging game,
7:15or the larger challenge of a game,
7:18you have to leave the easier game
7:20behind.
7:22Two important points there. Number one,
7:23if you time it properly, and you say,
7:25you know, we're approaching the top of
7:27this bubble, we're approaching the top
7:28of this bell curve,
7:31if you switch to the next game, [music]
7:34the previous game, well, on a revenue
7:36level, right? The previous business will
7:38not just fall apart. You can give it 5%
7:41of your time, keep it afloat, put it on
7:42autopilot, and put 95% of your time into
7:45the next thing. And then if couple
7:46months in, once you have some traction,
7:48then you put 100% of your time into that
7:50next thing.
7:50>> [music]
7:51>> And yes, you may be giving up the good
7:52for the great. We no longer have a booty
7:54band business. I don't care. The
7:57energy drink business does more in a day
7:59than that booty band business did in a
8:01week. Truly, it is it is 75 times the
8:04size of what that booty band business
8:06could have ever been. You have to give
8:08up the good for the great. There's
8:10nothing wrong with that. It will feel
8:11weird, and the people around you will
8:13probably tell you you're being crazy.
8:15Why would you give up such a good thing
8:16that you have? [music] Tell them, "I'm
8:18young, and I want more for myself and my
8:20family and my team and my community."
8:22That's what you tell them. Or you don't
8:23say anything, you just leave.
8:24[music] Anyway.
8:26This leads me to my next lesson.
8:29Focus is king, baby. Remove the noise.
8:32When I said you level up to the next
8:34>> [music]
8:35>> When I said you level up to the next
8:36challenge, and you need to
8:38give up the good for the great and
8:39forget the last challenge,
8:41that's because of focus.
8:43And let's break that down a little bit.
8:45Everyone that I have met in my life
8:48who has done exceptional things, or any
8:50point in my life
8:52in the last 12 years of my journey,
8:54who when I am at my peak performance of
8:58growth, revenue, income, community
9:00value, whatever it may be,
9:02it is during times where I'm at 100%
9:05focus. I am so anti-diverse
9:09portfolio.
9:10I know our parents, the older
9:12generation, Warren Buffett's of the
9:13world, college professors, high school
9:15teachers, whatever the hell they are,
9:17they tell you to have a diverse
9:18portfolio to diminish risk.
9:21Nobody ever got highly successful in a
9:25short period of time, right? [music]
9:27This is a
9:28This is a
9:29a high eight-figure home.
9:31I don't know anyone who's 31 that has a
9:32high eight-figure home that had a
9:33diversified [music] portfolio.
9:35I've never heard of that in
9:35>> [clears throat]
9:36>> in my life.
9:37Everyone who I've met that has done
9:39incredible things in a short period of
9:41time put 100% of their mind share in
9:43that thing. Everything I think about for
9:45the last 7 years is Bloom. [music]
9:46I don't think about other businesses. I
9:48don't think about my stock marketplace.
9:49I don't think about real estate. [music]
9:51I let other people handle those things.
9:53I am 100% invested in this brand and
9:55that's why we are winning. That's why we
9:56are [music] climbing the ladder at
9:57least, right? And I remember this like
9:59it was yesterday.
10:00My best friend Leo
10:02who's now the president of Bloom, my
10:03son's middle name is Leo, is he's my
10:05best friend
10:06since high school.
10:08He was selling biotech deals on Wall
10:10[music] Street to super high net worth
10:11individuals and he was calling thousands
10:13of them a day. And one day I was like,
10:15"Leo,
10:16what's something in common that you see
10:18amongst these super high net worth
10:19individuals who are like, you know,
10:2040-ish, like you young enough where it
10:22was really impressive?"
10:24He said, "Bro,
10:26they're all just all in all the time.
10:29Like none of them have diversified stock
10:30portfolios like we've been told to do
10:32our whole life.
10:33They're savages. [music]
10:34They do a ton of diligence around one
10:37deal and they bet the house. And
10:39the thing that happens when you bet the
10:41house is the reward is tremendous and
10:44you can take that risk when you are
10:46young. Maybe you can't when you're 50
10:48because you can't recover after you're
10:4950, right? Maybe.
10:51>> [music]
10:51>> But in your 20s, who gives a if you
10:53start back at zero?
10:54Who gives a I've started back from
10:56zero a few times. But if I never went
10:58all in as many times as I did when I was
11:01right, I would never have Bloom [music]
11:03the size that it is today. You have to
11:05go all in on things and I don't just
11:07mean through your capital
11:08>> [music]
11:09>> allocation. I mean through your mind
11:10share.
11:11You are your most important asset.
11:14You are your most powerful asset. Your
11:15mind share is your most important
11:17portfolio that you organize
11:19>> [music]
11:19>> and you need to give 100% of that to the
11:22most valuable thing that you are working
11:24on. That's how you will leverage your
11:26resources for the most reward of
11:29anything else. And you know, read the
11:31room. When it's time to move on, it's
11:33time to move on. Sometimes bets don't
11:34work out. I mean, I've had products that
11:36completely [music] flop. I move
11:38on. I'm onto the next thing. Every day
11:39starts at zero. You just move on the
11:41next day.
11:42>> [music]
11:42>> When your attention isn't divided, your
11:44decisions get sharper.
11:46Your execution gets smoother.
11:48>> [music]
11:48>> It gets faster. And everyone that you
11:51partner with, whether it's me partnering
11:53with Walmart, whether it's my team who I
11:55partner with, whether it's my
11:56distributors like Dr. Pepper,
11:59they see [music] it in me. They see it
12:00in my soul. You can't fake this
12:03People want to partner with people who
12:04are 100% committed. They know I'm
12:06rock-solid focused. And nothing can
12:09nothing can hurt that. Nothing can take
12:11that away. I have blinders on.
12:13And if you can keep blinders on for a
12:16decade straight, you will do what takes
12:18most people [music] their entire life,
12:20if not more. The progress compounds like
12:23nobody can ever tell you because they
12:24don't want to show you this in the
12:26textbooks. They want to show you to be
12:27diversified. They want to show you to be
12:28low-risk. But what they don't tell you
12:30is low-risk is low-reward. And this
12:32video is about high-reward in your 20s.
12:34This next point is probably my favorite
12:36of all of them. I guess this is lesson
12:37three. It may sound cheesy, but stay
12:40ready so you don't need to get ready.
12:41The reason you need to stay ready so you
12:43don't need to get ready is because the
12:44greatest opportunities in my life have
12:46been things that were impossible to plan
12:48for. And
12:49>> [music]
12:49>> so many people think that you should
12:52plan for two, four, five years out, even
12:55a decade out.
12:56If you're trying to move at the speed of
12:57culture and you're a proper entrepreneur
12:59who is responding to [music] cultural
13:01macro movements, you can't plan for
13:03these things. You just need to stay
13:05ready. Every day, [music] you can't be
13:07hungover. You can't be having
13:09relationship problems. You can't be out
13:12of shape. [music] You can't be
13:13cognitively out of shape. You can't miss
13:15a day at the office. That's what staying
13:17ready so you don't need to get ready
13:18means. And what happens when you do
13:20that, I'll tell [music] you. COVID hit.
13:22It was 2020. Mari and I were living in
13:23Brooklyn. Bloom was just kind of
13:25starting. We launched Bloom in 2019.
13:26>> [music]
13:27>> Nobody knew how to react, and everyone
13:29we were competing with had large
13:30corporate offices that were just
13:31completely shut down. No one could even
13:33respond to it if they wanted. Bloom
13:35responded. We doubled down on protein.
13:37Everybody was baking protein goods at
13:38home. We doubled down on gut health and
13:41overall wellness through our greens
13:42powder, and we
13:44blasted these products around
13:46the country through established
13:47e-commerce channels like Shopify and
13:49Amazon, and we were not chained to just
13:52brick-and-mortar retailers. So, we
13:54stayed ready for any scenario with our
13:56sales channels, with our products
13:57portfolio, and when COVID hit and we saw
14:00how culture was responding, we were able
14:03to sell protein for at-home baking and
14:05greens for at-home wellness, and we rode
14:08those to the moon before any other
14:10business that we were competing with
14:11even knew how to respond. They were
14:13still just trying to figure out how to
14:15set up work from home with Zoom calls,
14:17right? Number two, [music] TikTok.
14:19TikTok came out of nowhere. It was a
14:20social media channel that no one had
14:22even heard of. Kids were just
14:23dancing on it. We took a bet.
14:25>> [music]
14:26>> We said, "We're ready for a new social
14:27media channel. We get Instagram, we get
14:29YouTube, we get Snapchat. What's the
14:30difference? Let's give this a
14:32shot." So, we built what is without
14:34today the largest in-house influencer
14:36marketing agency inside the walls of
14:37Bloom in our LA headquarters and our
14:39Austin-based headquarters.
14:40>> [music]
14:41>> And we have
14:4212 billion views across our influencer
14:45program. Maybe it's more at this point,
14:47and it's [music] definitely more at this
14:48point. That was just the last time I
14:49checked, We were able to
14:51accumulate such a [music] cultural
14:53impact through 12 billion-plus views
14:56because we were ready to hop onto a new
14:58social media [music] channel. We didn't
15:00need to move at a at a corporate
15:02sluggish rate and just continue to post
15:04on Facebook or whatever social
15:06medias were getting antiquated at that
15:08point. We [music] were ready. And when
15:10new opportunities pop up, you jump on
15:12them. And there's been other social
15:13media channels that we, you know, give
15:14the time of day, and they don't work
15:16out, and then we move on to the next.
15:18But [music] getting early on TikTok was
15:20substantial for our business.
15:22Opportunity three that we could not have
15:23planned for. GLP-1s.
15:26Half the country is taking these
15:27things and their consumer behavior is
15:30completely different and a lot of these
15:31people are in the Bloom community.
15:33We have incredibly tasting low-calorie
15:35products that are pro gut health,
15:37something that people who are taking
15:38GLP-1s need to consume. I mean, this is
15:40a pharmaceutical intervention that
15:41nobody could have possibly prepared for.
15:43Completely demolished [music] culture
15:44and consumer demands and palate trends.
15:47An amazing tasting energy drink.
15:48Caffeine [music] is one of the most
15:50important products for somebody tired
15:51not eating enough calories, right? Our
15:53protein [music] products. We made a
15:54clear protein once we realized how much
15:56this was affecting culture and [music]
15:59their macronutrient needs have
16:01completely changed. They're diminishing
16:02away with a lack of appetite. They need
16:05protein. We launched a clear protein. I
16:07mean, I think we just [music] broke like
16:08a TikTok Shop record with clear protein.
16:10It's completely demolishing the Target
16:12shelves right now. You think a
16:13corporation can respond to GLP-1 that
16:15fast? No. [music] That's your job as
16:17someone in your 20s as a young man who's
16:18an entrepreneur. You need to be fast and
16:21[music] respond to these cultural
16:22movements. Number four, TikTok Shop.
16:25Very different than TikTok, by the way.
16:26Two very different cultural movements.
16:28TikTok Shop is a brand new marketplace
16:31that came out of nowhere like two years
16:32ago.
16:33Pepsi, Coke, [music]
16:34Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, none of them
16:36are even on there still. I sell soda on
16:38TikTok Shop. It's ripping. I
16:40think we've sold 14,000 [music]
16:42cans of our Shirley Temple energy drink.
16:44It's only been on there for Sorry,
16:45cases, not cans. Cases, that's like 12
16:4712 cans per [music] case. 14,000 cases
16:49of our Shirley Temple energy drink
16:51hasn't even launched in retailers yet.
16:53>> [music]
16:53>> I bet you Red Bull is not on
16:54TikTok Shop. We're ready. We were ready
16:57to hop on that marketplace. I flew to
16:59their LA headquarters over at TikTok
17:01Shop and we did business because
17:03we were ready. We stayed ready. In
17:05conclusion, instead of trying to map out
17:07the next 3, 5, 10 years of your life, I
17:11have found it far more valuable to just
17:13stay ready for what life throws at me
17:16across the next 3, 5, 10 years. And all
17:19that means is staying cognitively,
17:22physically, emotionally, socially smart,
17:26>> [music]
17:27>> ready, and capable. Honestly, I would
17:29say lesson three is two lessons. I would
17:31say it's it's it's lesson three and
17:32lesson four.
17:34Stay ready so you don't need to get
17:35ready is frankly how I think of
17:36discipline. Obviously, discipline is the
17:38greatest form of self-respect.
17:40If you're not a disciplined person, I
17:42don't know what to tell you. You should
17:43probably change videos.
17:45But if you're open to changing,
17:46I would highly recommend it. Being a
17:48disciplined person who
17:50>> [music]
17:50>> is able to show up more days in a row
17:54than anybody else has increased my
17:56chances of luck.
17:59It has increased my chances of being
18:01prepared for whatever the universe
18:03throws at us, whatever opportunities
18:05present themselves. [music] And when you
18:06receive people who go, "Oh, they just
18:09launched their business in 2018 when
18:11meta ads were cheap. Oh, they just
18:12launched their business early on TikTok.
18:14Oh, they just, you know, blew up cuz of
18:16GLP-1s." What the kind of victim
18:18mentality is that? Every year there's
18:21opportunities that can be the thing
18:23people say that about you because you
18:25were ready. The only victim mentality
18:28that people should be saying is it,
18:29"Fuck, I wasn't ready." And that's on
18:32you, homie. That's on you if you're not
18:33ready. And you're not ready if you're
18:35not disciplined. So, lesson number four
18:37is just master discipline. And it takes
18:40time.
18:41I wasn't as disciplined as I am today
18:43when I was 22, 25, or 27. Again, we
18:46level up completely every 6 months. 6
18:48months ago I was less disciplined than I
18:50am today. You're born with the hand that
18:52you are dealt. Shaq is born at 7 ft or
18:54whatever the he is. Some people are
18:56born with money. Some people are born
18:58with, you know, whatever attributes they
18:59can try to wield as their highest
19:02wielding tool. There are things that you
19:04can do to control your luck.
19:06You can be in the rooms. You can shake
19:08the right hands. You can be in the right
19:09states. You can [music]
19:11stay ready so you don't have to get
19:12ready. The amount of times that I have
19:15organized meetings with
19:17>> [music]
19:17>> powerful people by just pretending I
19:20happen to be in town when I knew they
19:22happen to be in town. You want to do
19:24business with Walmart and the buyers of
19:26Walmart are walking around a trade show
19:28happening in California. Go to that
19:30trade show.
19:31>> [music]
19:31>> If you're looking for top tier marketers
19:34and you know that there's a marketing
19:35convention in New York City, just book
19:37the plane [music] ticket. If you have no
19:38money,
19:39just get a hostel. I don't care.
19:42Be in the room.
19:43By the way, speaking of location and
19:45geographic luck,
19:47Mari and I moved five times [music] in
19:49five years. We went from Philadelphia to
19:51New York to LA. We launched Bloom and
19:53Boulder before all of that and then now
19:56we're in Austin, Texas. We moved [music]
19:58five times in five years because we were
20:00controlling our luck and making sure we
20:01were in the city in the country that
20:03provided our business and [music] and
20:05careers and therefore the output to our
20:07community with the most value as
20:09possible. [music] When we were building
20:11an influencer program, it made the most
20:13sense to be in LA. When we were
20:15launching a beverage business and we
20:17partnered with Dr. Pepper who's in Texas
20:19and Nutrabolt who's in Austin, Texas, we
20:21moved to Texas. We increased our chances
20:23of better luck. This isn't rocket
20:25science. Move out of your hometown. That
20:28is the easiest way to increase your
20:29luck. Surround yourself with people who
20:31keep you out of trouble. Surround
20:34yourself with people who motivate you
20:35and inspire you. Never find yourself as
20:37being a shark in a pond. That is the
20:39worst way to hurt your luck. If you are
20:41a shark in a pond to the friends that
20:43you hang out with, if you are a shark in
20:45the pond to the city that you live in,
20:48if you are a shark in the pond to the
20:49media that you consume, if you're
20:51watching some loser ass media on
20:54social media while you doom scroll, that
20:56is the pond that you are swimming in.
20:58That will decrease your chances of luck.
21:01All right, lesson number six or seven or
21:03wherever the we are.
21:04JJ's is to hate me for saying that. JJ's
21:06[music]
21:07runs my media team.
21:08He's the One of the worst pieces
21:10of advice that I hear told to people in
21:12their 20s is to move [music] in silence.
21:14I think privacy is a beautiful thing.
21:16There are things that are secret to me
21:17that I do not share with the world.
21:20That said, your business,
21:22I am a massive believer in building in
21:24public.
21:26If a tree falls in a forest and no one's
21:27around to hear it, does anyone hear that
21:28it fell? I don't know, but I
21:30know that if you're building something
21:32special or believe that you're building
21:34something special,
21:35you will get very frustrated at the lack
21:38>> [music]
21:38>> of attention and status that you receive
21:41if you do not build in public.
21:43>> [music]
21:43>> And I'm not talking about your ego when
21:45I say that. I'm talking about the
21:47opportunities that present themselves,
21:48going back to controlling your luck. The
21:50opportunities that present yourselves if
21:52you let people know what you're working
21:54on.
21:54>> [music]
21:54>> We have always been very loud on social
21:56media about our business achievements.
21:59When we, you know, hit certain metrics
22:01on Amazon, when we serve 250 million
22:04consumers, when we are number one at
22:06Target or break a record at Walmart or
22:09get a get a get a number one seller on
22:11Instacart. [music] I don't care what it
22:13is. Share this stuff. This will attract
22:15talent that is looking for the next big
22:18thing. It will attract partners that are
22:20looking for the next big thing. It will
22:22attract retailers that are looking for
22:25the next big thing or potentially
22:26strategic acquirers or investors that
22:28are looking for the next big thing. If
22:30there is almost no disservice and only
22:34upside that I have found to [music]
22:37building in public on a relatively
22:38intimate level. And one of the worst
22:41things is if you think people are going
22:43to like steal your ideas,
22:45>> [music]
22:45>> dude, no one will.
22:46No one will steal your ideas.
22:48I'm an open book with everything that I
22:50do. And honestly, if someone were to
22:52take some of the ideas, that's
22:54awesome. They're not going to be as good
22:55at executing them as you are. And
22:57they're it's going You're you've already
22:59used the idea, right? So now now now
23:01give it off to somebody else.
23:03>> [music]
23:03>> The The simplest way to say this is is
23:05is it opens doors. If you are building
23:08in public, you will notice [music] that
23:09doors open. You get invited to rooms
23:12that you would not have been invited to
23:13>> [music]
23:13>> if you were not making it known what you
23:16were building. And by the way, it's an
23:19incredible way to build a community
23:20around a brand. And if you're trying to
23:21build a brand and not to sell a product,
23:23[music] one of the coolest ways is to
23:25bring your community along for the ride.
23:27If you bring your community along for
23:29the ride,
23:30>> [music]
23:30>> they will know who they are supporting.
23:32They will know what they are supporting.
23:34They will know the brand that they are
23:36supporting and why. And we have been so
23:39open over the last [music]
23:40decade about the businesses that we run,
23:43whether it's Before Bloom or During
23:44Bloom or even up until today,
23:47people root for us. And it's incredible
23:48feeling, right? Like it's fulfilling,
23:51it's attracted talent, it's attracted
23:53deals, and it lets people be part of
23:56what you're doing, which is just What's
23:57more special than that? This is a lonely
23:59game already, entrepreneurship. Why
24:01would you make it even lonelier? Lesson
24:03number eight, you don't need to recreate
24:05the wheel. A lot of people think that
24:07they need to come up with a completely
24:08new and original idea in order to start
24:11a business or release a product. And the
24:12reality is is I've never done that.
24:15We were not the first better-for-you
24:17soda. We were not the first energy
24:18drink. We were not the first booty band.
24:20We were not the first fitness guide. We
24:21were not the first greens powder.
24:23In fact,
24:25we were a few We were a little late to
24:26those things. I love being late to the
24:28party because what happens is if you
24:30enter an existing [music] category, and
24:32instead of recreating the wheel, you
24:34just take the wheel that already exists,
24:36and you make yours 10 times better,
24:38[music]
24:38there's so much less education that you
24:41need to fund in your marketing
24:42practices, and that is how you will
24:44create a healthy, profitable, efficient
24:47business. Right? You don't want to spend
24:49all of your money explaining what a
24:51product is. There's a great reason why
24:53we put our soda into a [music] soda can
24:55that Coca-Cola uses. I didn't want to
24:57have to change cultural habits with my
25:00product. I didn't want to recreate the
25:01wheel and put this soda in a
25:03milk carton. That would be weird, even
25:05if it would be really hilarious.
25:07>> [music]
25:07>> I wouldn't do that because you don't
25:08want to recreate the wheel.
25:10I love entering existing categories. It
25:12has allowed us to be profitable [music]
25:14every single day for the last 10 years,
25:16and it has allowed us to take existing
25:19products and just make them better.
25:20[music] That is what people want.
25:23And that is what I have found to be a
25:25really great [music] way to operate as
25:28an entrepreneur. Lesson number nine-ish.
25:30Connect the dots.
25:32This is This is awesome. And this is
25:34honestly going back to the whole genesis
25:35of the idea behind this video. You will
25:37learn things throughout your journey
25:40that you need to note. And you will find
25:43that you will use the learnings from
25:45every chapter of your journey in future
25:48chapters. So, going back to the story I
25:50told previously, Crisp Apple and Glacier
25:52Crush were our top-selling [music]
25:53pre-workout flavors six, seven years
25:55ago. Now, it's our number one-selling
25:57energy drink flavors. [music]
25:59There are so many negotiations that I
26:01had to go through when our businesses
26:03were small. And through those
26:04negotiations, I learned the lessons
26:06about negotiating
26:07>> [music]
26:07>> that I was able to apply to
26:09multi-hundred-million-dollar
26:11negotiations that I've done in the last
26:122 years. Because life is learned in the
26:15arena, you need to make sure that as you
26:17are leveling up to each
26:19>> [music]
26:19>> game that you are playing and each new
26:20challenge that you are approaching, you
26:22are bringing the lessons from the
26:25previous [music] game that you played.
26:27Every lesson compounds, every experience
26:29compounds, every handshake [music]
26:30compounds. If something feels right, it
26:33is worth your time. And what I mean by
26:35that is I have have experiences [music]
26:36where I meet somebody, or I go to a
26:38trade show, or I go to a marketing
26:39event, or I go to a pitch, and it feels
26:42like nothing comes out of it in the
26:43short in the short time,
26:45but
26:46>> [music]
26:46>> 6 months later, a year later,
26:48that person will follow up. And it was
26:50worth my time then. I'll go on to my
26:52last lesson as the sun [music] sets.
26:53This is a beautiful evening we've got
26:55here. Oh, my cigar went out. This will
26:56really be my last lesson cuz I don't
26:58want to light this again. Moon shots
26:59only. If there's one lesson that you
27:02take away from this video is this last
27:03lesson that I go over now and it's moon
27:05shots only. And what I can teach you so
27:07you don't need to learn this the hard
27:08way is that
27:10a small venture
27:13will take the same amount of time and
27:15the same amount of resources as a large
27:17venture.
27:18And what I mean by that is I know people
27:20who have a $100,000 year businesses,
27:22million dollar year businesses, 10, 100,
27:25billion dollar year businesses. We're
27:27kind of all the same amount of stressed.
27:29We're kind of all have the same amount
27:30of gray hairs. We have the same amount
27:32of sleepless nights.
27:33We have the same amount of that
27:35we need to put up with.
27:36If you're going to go after something,
27:38you might as well go after something
27:39huge. Even today with Blue
27:41Apron, I'll just, you know, try to tell
27:43my perspective or my point of view of
27:45all of this. My team knows that we won't
27:47go after something that isn't
27:47potentially a $100 million dollar
27:49opportunity. Because we have learned
27:51that going after $10 million dollar
27:52opportunities takes [music] almost the
27:54same amount of effort as the $100
27:55million dollar opportunity. That's kind
27:57of crazy to think about, right? But it
27:58that that is the perfect example of how
28:01a moon shot takes [music] the same
28:03amount of resources as a small shot. So,
28:06you might as well just go after the
28:08moon shot. Apply those examples
28:10to whatever it is for your journey. But
28:13I'm telling you right now, you might as
28:15well take the moon shot because
28:17>> [music]
28:17>> the chances are it's honestly the same
28:19amount of risk. It's the same amount of
28:20chance of success. That's what I have
28:22found personally. Moon shots [music]
28:24only is how I'm approaching my 30s. It's
28:26how I approached a lot of my 20s and I
28:28have never regretted going [music] that
28:30way. The sun is properly setting.
28:33If you're serious about leveling up your
28:3420s,
28:35>> [music]
28:35>> this is what it takes.
28:37It takes somebody who does not recognize
28:39themselves in the mirror every 6 months.
28:41>> [music]
28:41>> Every 6 months you should look at
28:42yourself in the mirror and not recognize
28:44the man looking back. You will find
28:46yourself leveling up at a rapid, rapid
28:48pace. And [music]
28:49if you are sensing even the approach to
28:52a plateau, it is time to level up.
28:55[music] It is time to find a new, larger
28:57challenge, a larger market to go after,
28:59a larger business to go after, a larger
29:01goal to go after. It means putting
29:03yourself in rooms that you aren't ready
29:05to be in. It means putting yourself into
29:07challenges that you aren't ready to be
29:08in. It means maybe going against
29:12the advice that you're getting from your
29:13close circle or close family around you.
29:16I look forward to making more videos
29:17like this. I am [music] so passionate
29:19about how much entrepreneurship has set
29:22up my family [music] and my team and the
29:25community that we've provided for over
29:27the years in ways that I could never
29:28have imagined,
29:29>> [music]
29:29>> in ways that society never told me that
29:32somebody like myself would be capable of
29:33doing. And I just wish that for so many
29:36of the viewers watching this now. Your
29:39life starts changing the second you
29:41start taking action. Stop planning.
29:43[music]
29:44You know what to do.
29:45My name is Greg LaVecchia. I'm the CEO
29:47and co-founder of Bloom.
29:49Thank you for watching.
29:51Cool.
29:52>> [music]
29:58[music]
30:03[music]
30:09[music]
30:15[music]

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