RESOURCES
- Visit Advanced Supps Online: “advancedsupps.com“
- Get Trevors Favorite Supplement “WarPath” at “Advanced Supps“
- Get Trevors Favorite “Post-Performance at “Advanced Supps“
- Visit Trevor Bower on Instagram
- Visit Trevor Bower on YouTube
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Listen to this episode on iTunes
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro Snip
00:06 The Dr. Haley Show Introduction
00:39 Dr. Michael Haley introduces Trevor Bower from advancedsupps.com
01:31 Dr. Haley and Trevor swap bowling stories
05:15 Trevor explains his reason for supplements and what his bad experience was when shopping for them.
08:28 How Trevor made decisions overall for his business emphasizing communication and transparency.
11:00 How much do employees at AdvanceSupps know their products?
13:30 How much of the supplement industry is online vs. in-store?
16:05 how the store model has changed before and after Covid
17:59 The Dr. Haley Show Midroll
19:01 Can people shopping online get personal attention and questions answered regarding their supplement choices?
22:10 Trevor discusses some of the failures when it comes to carrying other brands.
22:25 Does AdvancedSupps.com have their own brand?
26:28 What is the difference between a brand and a private label?
29:14 How did you make your first product and how has it evolved?
29:50 How many did you have to have made to start your brand?
30:20 Dr. Haley explains the business of starting a brand and compares it to private lables which are often found in Doctors offices.
32:28 what are the multiple levels of profit for most brands?
34:48 Dr. Haley interupts the show to mention the monthly promotional
36:10 Who do you work with when going to a laboratory?
36:50 How Trevor Bower comes up with a formula
40:10 Dr. Haley tells a story of a product failure on a previous formula of a product we currently make.
42:18 Dr. Haley explaines products that doesn’t have fillers and how clumping is a good thing.
45:40 Dr. Haley asks about Kurt Angle’s statement regarding his products.
46:38 What products does Trevor use that his company makes? Warpath, the pre-workout supplement to get a better workout. Post-Formance by United Nutra
58:47 Outro
TRANSCRIPT
the difference between success and failure is having the right resources. They’re available to you and they’re out there.
You are listening to the Doctor Haley Show, the podcast dedicated to helping you optimize your health. Each episode there will be an interview or a message to help you discover better health. We will be featuring health radicals on the show to bring new ideas to the table, as well as doubling down on key fundamentals to support you living your best life.
Your host is no other than the founder of Haley Nutrition doctor Michael Haley.
this is the Dr Haley Show podcast, and today we’re going to be meeting with Trevor Bower. He’s the owner of advancedsupps.com, a retailer for vitamins and supplements in central Pennsylvania. He’s someone that previously had a complete mistrust in the supplement industry, and now helps people reach their fitness goals with the right information, community and products.
He’s fostered a community of over 10,000 people and has supplements on the shelves of retailers around the world.
Trevor, thank you for joining me on the Dr Haley Show podcast I got a weird question to start things out here. What’s your best score? Bowling.
Well,
first of all, I really appreciate you having me here
And,
I have shot 300 4 times. Wow.
Not a lot. When you compare it to some of my family members, you know, being in the, you know, 50 or over 100, but you know, wow. For the average guy, I think that’s pretty good.
That’s amazing. Yeah. I saw you on a podcast where, you know, the topic of bowling came up and I thought, oh, that’s pretty cool. I used to do some bowling in college, goofing around. Not a league, but you having bowling lanes in the family and what’s it like? What’s the family rivalry like?
you know, there’s definitely a lot of competition with bowling.
but,
my oldest brother and my dad are, you know,
clearly the, you know, I think the best in the family.
but, you know, my cousins are very good.
my brothers,
are all very good.
we don’t really do a lot of,
you know, one on bowling, one on one bowling with each other.
but, you know, they do a lot of competitions, and it’s,
you know, it’s pretty cool having in the family.
you know, my grandfather started the business because he enjoyed, you know, people coming together, enjoying a good time, having time with their families. So that’s really what it’s more about as a sport.
Now, do they,
supplement properly or could they do even better?
I’m the only one in my family that’s really, like,
rigorous with my supplement routine.
That’s funny. So they could probably do better. You know, I have a bowling story of my own. I haven’t done much bowling.
but being on a league, I remember one time, and it was more about drinking beer. I mean, that’s the truth of the matter. we went and it was the guys getting together and bowling on the league was a
reason to get together and have a few beers together.
So probably 6 or 7 beers into our goofing off. My friend said, if you bowl a perfect game, I’ll buy you a Jeep. Now, I probably hadn’t broken 200 more than a time or two, but now all of a sudden he’s got my attention and I know he’s not going to actually buy me a Jeep if I bowl a perfect game.
But I thought, let’s make this fun. You know, guys are, when they’re goofing off. So nine frames in. I still have a perfect game, but I blew it in the 10th. But that was my high score at 279. It was fun. It was goofing off, that’s awesome Yeah. And it was perfect timing for my best score because, you know, our guys are, you know, hitting each other and goofing off.
But it was more about the friendship and having a good time together. But sometimes things get serious. And, you know, men like to compete. Well, now it’s on. You’re going to buy me a new Jeep. Okay. It’s on. Let’s do this. This is a good time to.
And I also, I think that the first nine frames is easier than the last one. So, there’s always some more pressure. It’s very hard to. Yeah. You get, you get nine, you know, and it seems like it’s all easy and you know, up and you know, downhill from there and, and,
yeah, that’s
it’s, it’s easy to the tenth frame always gets you
So.
isn’t that the truth. And I also know there’s a difference between you know, going bowling on a Friday night and being in a competition where there is a whole bunch of pressure on and the lanes are all greased up and, you know, that’s a whole different game.
Yeah. For sure.
So tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you get into the supplement industry? And I know you had a mistrust. Where did that come from?
Yeah.
so I really got into fitness. I mean, really, as soon as I got a car,
it was to me, it was about getting in better shape. It was about looking better, being more self,
confident with who I was.
and I, in college,
would go around from supplement store to supplement store asking people for their advice.
The staff members and everyone would give you a different answer.
I tried a lot of different supplements.
when I started researching supplements on my own,
I did realize that,
not everything that I was told was truthful.
I did learn after the fact about, you know, certain commissions and quotas that a lot of these,
sales individuals are trying to hit,
you know,
and let me also preface this.
As you know, this is a corporate chain store. You know, this is not how mom and pop brick and mortar retail stores,
typically operate. I’m a big fan of, you know, going to your, your local mom and pop, you know, supplement store. They can really help you out.
but you know, and it really all depends on the staff, too, you know, you get some bad apples here and there.
So,
but there’s a lot of great people and a lot of great resources. And I try to use the resources that I had available. I didn’t really have anyone in my family or my friends circle that knew a lot about this.
so and Google has so much conflicting information. It’s very, very hard to know what’s true, what’s not.
Everyone’s giving their personal opinion, their personal experience. And, you know, that’s great. But what’s going to work for the vast majority of people or someone in my position? Right. So that’s why I was seeking this advice. And I do feel like I was,
I was misled,
you know, dozens of times. So,
you know that was very frustrating and I kind of fell into this business,
to,
managers of stores that I had previously gone in and talked to and build a strong relationship with, and I trusted, decided that they were going to open their own supplement store, you know, a mom and pop one where we could carry anything.
Not the biggest brands but the best brands. And I thought that was really exciting. I wanted to be a part of it.
I was doing online marketing and web design straight out of college, so I had been doing that for a little over a year. I thought, well, this is great. I can help them out if I’m part of it.
And that’s much better to do that kind of stuff internally, to running the website and doing your own marketing, rather than hiring an agency or hiring someone that doesn’t really know your business. So that’s how I got really involved.
two and a half years in the partnership had it worked out. And then I was eventually as a sole owner of the business.
So,
I was just, you know, my mind, my head was on this 100% of the time. And, you know, that’s kind of how I came through it. And,
you know, my former partners we kind of work things out where this was the best for us. So. Okay.
and I came at the point where
wanted to do things differently than how other stores operate.
I wanted to put our community first, let our community, our customers and our employees is, you know, everyone is part of our community really determine what we do going forward. So every decision that I made from 2018 on was what would my and employees and my customers want me to do? And the principles that kept coming back to me was communication and transparency, two things that rather lack in this industry.
So I like to be very overly communicative and transparent about how things are.
and that’s how I run the business.
I’ve learned so much about this industry, working with manufacturers one on one, working with different brands, working with other retail stores. And I really do have a perspective on the supplement industry that very, very few people out there have.
I don’t claim to be,
biochemist or someone that completely understands how everything’s working in your body. But I’ve seen how things work for people time and time again for thousands of people through real experience and through my own personal experience. And that’s been really exciting for me because I’ve been able to help people far beyond the help that I got myself.
I like the fact that you talked about transparency. And, you know, I’ve learned some things in, well, in business, in life. And that seems to be the way to go. Straightforward, honest living by principle and when people have complaints or corrections, you learn from them and you move forward and you continue to improve and operate on this transparent level, we might push those,
transparencies to the limit in this conversation as we talk about supplements, because, you know, it’s like any industry, there’s good and bad players in it.
And you talked about being at a particular chain. I think I know who you were talking about without mentioning their name specifically, but I remember being in this large chain and having the same experience where people knew very little about what they were selling. What’s it like at your retail location, and how are people trained in? How is that different than what your early experiences
were?
we don’t have a robust training system. And the reason for that is I do not hire anyone that doesn’t isn’t already experienced with our products and our community. I think that there is less that you can learn from a book than you can through your own experience. And I think just the willingness to help people, the willingness to listen to them, hear what they’re saying, have a conversation with them, genuinely want to help them, and then explore the different options that can help them the most.
Sometimes it is trial and error finding what works best for you. You’re not going to learn that from a book or,
a manual. So,
I am a big proponent of hiring from my existing community,
that I know and can be confident it’s going to be able to help our customers. If I don’t have that, then I am in the store myself.
I just don’t want to have, you know, in an emergency situation and say, my girlfriend or a community member has to step in. That does know a lot about the store, does know how to help the customers, but don’t have all the answers. They know as soon as the customer has a question that you don’t know the answer to and you want to get them the right answer, you call me my store manager, my,
assistant store manager, and you get the answer for them, you know?
So just being willing to help people and get them the true answer and not just make something up because you’re unsure,
where to tell someone that you don’t know. I mean, I’d much rather you say, hey, I don’t know, but I can get the answer for you
And even sometimes I say, I don’t know, but absolutely me too
Sure. Yeah. What’s unacceptable is making something up.
absolutely. And it’s so prevalent. Everyone wants to help. And they think by giving expert advice and something they don’t know enough about is the right thing to do. They think they’re helping your interfere in your harming people. You’re misleading them. Don’t do it. I agree. Now how have things changed over the years in the industry? Meaning?
Well, what percentage of your sales is online versus in the store? Retail?
It’s a great question. It’s changed a lot over the years. When we started,
we didn’t have our first online. I built the website Reddit. You know, it was launched for when we opened our brick and mortar doors in Harrisburg, PA, and we got our first order from my business partners, sister, like four months in and we didn’t get another order for maybe a couple more months.
And I’d say a year in, we started having a couple online community members
it started building from there every single order online. I would pack myself, I would label myself, put their name, their address on there. I would write a note in there for them, give them samples, whatever extra I can give them so they open the package.
Or like, Oh! I got more than I was expecting. Yeah. And yeah, I like to exceed expectations. And I would hand the, you know, take it to the post office and I, you know, put so much care and attention into that order that as soon as I walked out of the post office, I would email that customer and say, hey, I got your order out and I still do that today.
I don’t take every package to the post office, but if we get an early pick up one day and there’s another 6 or 7 orders that didn’t make it out,
our post office is open till seven, so I have time often to go and get those to the post office. I think that is, you know, I can’t control USPS,
making mistakes or taking longer than usual or some of the weird holidays that,
come around,
that, you know, for off the schedule.
Sure next week, there’s going to be a break midweek and everything is going to get delayed by a day. I’m glad we’re celebrating 4th of July, you know.
Yeah
you know, I can’t control those things, but I can control that. We got the right order out at the right time,
as quickly as possible and that we’re taking care for that, that customer’s order. And I think that’s what has really that and the products I think are what, you know, bring people back.
So,
we never heavily marketed our website. I changed our name in 2018 to reflect advancedsupps.com instead of advanced nutritional supplements.
I saw the need for a hybrid model stores and online and you know, one brand we have a store with a different domain name.
so kind of merge the two. And I think that’s been pretty successful.
But pre-COVID I had five locations. I had three full stores, I had a smoothie bar and a shipping center.
those stores were,
doing more than the online store was by itself.
but then obviously Covid, I only had our online store, so there was a lot of overhead that we had to eliminate. We had to downsize.
And now we only have one location. And I’m actually really happy about that. There’s one place that I need to stock my shelves, have the best staff I possibly can, have the best service I possibly can, and I know when anyone’s walking in the doors, they’re it’s a lot easier for me to make sure that they are happy and they’re satisfied and trying to make sure that people are satisfied.
going five different places. I can’t be everywhere, and I’m not in our store all the time either, because I have a lot of other administrative work that you know, that
I have to do outside of the store.
lots of meetings and things like that. And,
but I like being in the store. I like having one place that we focus on, and we make sure a community is really getting the attentive care that they need.
So I love that.
I wish we never grew to five locations because, you know, this is really the best for us.
Yeah. So what I’m hearing, if I step back and look at everything you just said, it’s under-promise but overdeliver. And I think that’s a great way to be in business. And you said a lot of the things that I myself have done early on, when we were just building our website and getting our first orders, and yes, I was driving to the post office and delivering packages myself.
And then I realized, wait a second, there’s a
competition UPS and Fedex want my business now, and you’re negotiating better rates, and now they just pick up.
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with the change in the industry, I can go to a store, I can get personal one on one. And if they don’t know the answer, kind of a direct connection to you. But what if I’m just shopping online and I need some advice or guidance? Do you have a plan for that?
Yeah. So,
I’m always accessible, you know, no matter what I’m doing, unless I’m in a meeting, I pretty much drop whatever I’m doing to answer a customer’s questions.
for the past year and a half,
I’ve always been. I’ve always made myself available for customers and customers.
that I’ve had a strong relationship. I’ve had my number for years, were messaged me on Facebook.
I had a,
operations manager,
handling a lot of emails and or texts up until about a year and a half ago.
for the past year and a half, it’s all been me.
so if you email our supported advancedsupps.com or you to email me directly or you text our phone number, come straight to me.
We have now for the past nine months since I rebuilt our website. We have a chat feature on the website. Unless I’m sleeping or in a meeting, I will answer you right away.
all right. I make myself very accessible so there is no reason why you can’t,
get the answers that you need. And I don’t limit that just to supplements.
I’ve been trying to put myself my own journey myself out there more,
this past year.
it’s been over 14.5 years that I’ve been Since when I really started heavily in college, very disciplined about getting myself into shape.
it’s been a really long time that I’ve been working on that journey. I have a very stubborn body type, and everybody has, you know, different genetics that they have to,
go through different challenges.
And I have found what’s worked well for me. And I’m seeing it work well for other people, too. So I’ve been putting,
more information out there on what I’m personally doing with my diet, with my overall routine.
how to incorporate supplements in your routine?
really make myself available for any advice that anyone needs.
I’m not saying that everything that has worked for me is going to be the answers,
for you, but it gives you a really great starting point. And from there you will find what works best for you. As long as you keep continuing to try.
Yeah. Let’s talk about some product failures. Have you ever picked up a brand, carried it, and then realized, wow, this isn’t what I thought it was?
Yeah, honestly, I don’t like carrying a lot of new brands.
because that has happened quite often over the years. Oftentimes, I’d say the biggest situation that happens is we do bring in a brand that has pretty good product,
comparable to what’s out there,
and good prices. So I can sell it for, you know, a good value to my customers
traditionally, what happens over time is those brands fight for those GNC shelves or Vitamin Shoppe shelves or Bodybuilding.com, and they start compromising on the brand. They start caring less about the mom and pop shops carrying their brand. So the price goes up, the formulas change, the packaging changes. Everything about the brand, all the reasons I brought it in changes, and now it’s no longer favorable for me to have it for my customers.
And I don’t like having a brand for the short term, because my customers are relying on something that you know they like, and then it changes.
Yeah, an example would be a solid mom and pop brand, and they put everything into it and they make an awesome product, and then they get an offer from someone else that’s much bigger than them, that buys them out and looks at it from a profitability standpoint, and they change the formula. They make it cheaper product, but they keep going to the existing customers.
So yes, I have definitely seen that change. Do you have any of your own? Do you have your own brand.
Yeah. So because of that,
well that’s part of it. Back in 2017,
we got an offer from one of the manufacturers where we were working with for one of the brands we were carrying, and they came out and said, you know, you’re doing really well with these products that I offer. However, we can make your own products, we can dose them higher and you’ll get the same or better price for them.
You just have to buy a lot more. So we started out with two products doing that. We dosed it better and
we sold it for the same price. So we were able to use, you know, better compounds, better formulas, sell it for,
the same price. And then because it was our brand, we had the flexibility of however we could price it, we also discounted it.
So you ended up getting a better product for a better price. It was a no brainer.
today.
Now we’re getting into the good stuff right now. Trevor, this this is what I should have started with.
This is going to be the good part here. Go ahead. Today. What?
So today we have about 70 products,
that we, you know, are in that situation with.
and that’s due to two things. One, I do really want people to enjoy what they’re taking and come back for it.
Right? I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars in marketing something and get a one time sale. I want people to buy it because their friend enjoyed it so much and told them about it, and how much it helped them, and then they try it and it works for them. So why not put that money that otherwise might be going into marketing to tell a lie, which I, you know, I won’t do, but I see a lot of other brands do.
Yeah. Why not put that money into the product instead? Yeah. And you know, it, it makes it harder to grow and build,
at least in the short term. But you make a lot of people happy doing that. And knowing my struggles in college and how hard it’s been for me to find good quality products, a lot of these products I’ve designed to be able to work for myself, being,
having a very stubborn body.
So
I enjoy I take a lot of our products and I’ve taken every product we have myself.
That’s great, I like it. That’s where it should come from. Let’s talk about the different kinds of brands and labels. And this is going to be where the audience can really start to understand when they’re shopping, you know, when they go to their physician and they see their physician has their own brand, you know, we’re going to talk about,
structure of money flow around the around the products and how it was that you were able to reformulate better for a lower cost by discussing the various steps the product goes through.
So, Trevor tell us briefly, what’s the difference between you having your own brand, carrying someone else’s brand, having a private label?
a lot of companies are not passionate about the supplement industry.
there are some brands that are just marketing teams, and they’re creating a demand for a product in the same way that they do for any other industry.
They come into this industry with VCs backing them. They’re a great marketing team. They’ve hopped around from industry to industry, and they come in and they do it here too. And they’re great at what they do, but they’re not great at making great product and they don’t understand, you know, what? People are actually looking for, but they create a demand around what they’re selling.
So they’re successful at it.
they oftentimes look for how little can I make something for and still make it sound great, and how high can I price it at?
and I think especially with doctor’s offices, they carry brands that are designed specifically for them. They are great products, but they’re way
not Always.
Overpriced. Oh yeah. Yeah,
I’ve been to a few,
endocrinologists myself that have had really great products.
but they cost a fortune.
and you even look for those brands on Amazon and they’re the same price they set their price because they know your doctor’s recommending it.
But the oftentimes the price of a product does not reflect what is in the product. Sometimes it does.
something that’s really, really cheap. It’s probably a really cheap product. But just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s better.
and often times it is not.
it really always comes down to the formula itself. And it is hard to really know without,
you know, a deeper knowledge or,
perspective to know what a good quality formula is without the experience.
when you look around online, you get so much different information.
if you’re looking, you know, for like a joint support product and you see what, you know, a good dose of glucosamine is you can see it that’s in there.
but if it’s just a sprinkle of glucosamine with all these other things that are just sprinkles,
it’s going to the whole product itself is probably not going to be all that effective.
So, Trevor, I want to get into the nitty gritty about product development when it comes to working with a laboratory.
what was the first product that you made or your favorite product that has your brand on it?
Well, the first two products we made was a test booster and a fat burner, which we still have today.
we’ve changed the formulas a few times, so keep improving on that.
but sure, when the next three products,
were all pre-workout, like none.
Well, let’s
let’s stick with that. Let’s, let’s go with that first one first, as an example, just for the audience benefit. Now the difference between buying from a different brand. You know, I could order someone else’s and order a dozen or I can have a laboratory make a product for me. How many units did you have to order the first time?
so some it really depends on the manufacturer. A lot of times you have to order a thousand units or more, so it’s not really feasible if you were just looking for yourself.
but for a store like us, where we were, we were selling plenty of units,
on our shelves already of less,
you know, superior product.
Then it made sense for us.
And, you know, for the people listening, just to understand this business, the laboratory might see some potential and they might say, you know what? For your first run, I’ll do 3 or 400 or 500 or whatever the case is, you might have a laboratory that’ll work with a brand new customer and starting their own product line. And their concern, obviously, is they everything has an expiration date and they want to see you succeed and they want a future big customer.
Now, when I talked about private labeling, I’m a physician and I have been approached. Oftentimes the concept of private labeling is a company will maybe go to a manufacture and create a product and they’ll say, okay, I want a thousand of them, but don’t put any labels on them. And then they go to the different doctors and say, hey, would you like your own brand?
You can have this supplement and they have no say in what’s going in it, because we already did our run of a thousand units or 10,000 units, and you can buy just 200 of them and get in a lot easier. You just don’t have any say what’s in it, but it’s going to have your label on it, and we’re going to make you look real professional, like you have your own brand, but it’s not their own brand.
It’s a private label. And you see that a lot of times in the small doctor’s offices, and the doctor feels all proud that they have their own brand. But the reality is it’s a private label and the people creating those might be making great products, or they might be really in it for the money. And they’re know that.
They know that they’re appealing to the doctor’s ego. Instead of the doctor saying, yeah, I’m going to make a creatine, glucosamine,
whatever supplement, and it’s going to be everything that I would put in it because I’m the doctor. I went to school, I studied biochemistry. I know what you need. It’s not like that.
There might be some great private labels out there, but that’s a big difference.
Now the products go through several steps. If I am a big brand and I go to a laboratory and I have them make something for me, chances are I’m going to have a unit price. But chances are I’m going to ship that to a distributor, and the distributor is going to sell it to the doctor’s offices, the nutrition stores, and then the nutrition stores are going to sell it to the customers.
So you have all of these multi steps involved, which, you know, the distributor has to have a profit. The store has to have a profit. And every step in the laboratory that made the product, of course they have to have a profit when you are making your own brand. You said that you could actually get it at a better price because really, you’re eliminating two of those profit centers, you’re eliminating the distributor, and, you know, you’re,
Well, yeah, actually, technically, you’re eliminating one of them. You’re eliminating the distributor
profit, and you’re not selling it to the wholesaler. You go directly to it. So it’s going from the laboratory to you to the customer.
Yeah. There’s no brand or distributor in the middle, which oftentimes. Yeah, that that leaves two extra layers of markup that we don’t have.
I understand the need to make less expensive product so that everyone can make their money along the way.
but that’s what you get with those highly distributed products.
the more well distributed a product is, sometimes the more that you see it, even the worse of a product it has to be, because there’s all those layers of markups, there’s all there’s distribution costs, there’s all that marketing cost to get it really far out there.
and I think a lot of people think that, oh, I’ve been seeing it everywhere and I’ve been hearing about it everywhere. And now my favorite celebrity is promoting it. It must be good. And I think oftentimes that’s the opposite of what the case is because of all those things, because it is everywhere.
it’s been distributed so heavily.
there’s been so much money put into the marketing and the distribution of this product that what’s left actually put into the product itself.
Yeah.
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Now, what’s it like when you’re working with the laboratory on formulating a product?
Yeah.
Who are you working with? Are you working with a scientist who you talk talking formula.
So
I like working directly with the, the owner of the a lot of the,
of the manufacturers themselves.
they have the greatest experience.
and then they have team members that have their own experiences, and then they have chemists that work alongside them.
you get all the resources that you really need there.
I’m a huge proponent of taking as many people’s ideas as possible.
I’ve never had the mindset of, oh, I need a new product. Let me see what the manufacturer suggests. I have always seen oh I have a need for this product from myself and my customers. My employees like,
we need something like this.
We have a demand for this, but nothing out there is good enough for us. So I’ll get some kind of epiphany moment where I’m like, hey, you know what I could to satisfy that need? I could probably combine this product, that product, that product. And I could dose a little bit better and I’d also like to put this in.
So I’ll already have my inspiration. Then I go to the manufacturer and say, hey, what do you think about this? And oftentimes they’ll come back to me and they’ll say, it’d be a phenomenal product, but you won’t want to pay all that. And I’ll say, just, you know, please, you know, here’s the doses I’m looking at, please just pour it out for me.
And they’re like, okay, here’s the quote. I have some ideas that cheapen it for you. And I say, oh, perfect, I love it. I can still sell that for,
the product really must work great if you have to take six cups a day or it must be dosed really, really well, you know, and I do have products that are 4 or 6 capsules a day because,
they are dosed so well that unless you put it into a powder, you can’t get, you can’t get all those doses.
but I believe it’s worth talking about.
yeah.
When you’re talking about a powder, you’re talking about a scoop
Yeah, yeah. But like, yeah, but you’re not going to want to take, you know, a lot of these herbs in a scoop because it’s not going to taste good.
and it’s going to be, it’s going to make it even more difficult than taking the capsules.
if you,
have to mix it several times a day into a shaker cup and then clean out your shaker cup, and especially if it doesn’t taste good, you’re not going to want to do that.
So I try to consider,
every aspect of
products and,
you even ask me about, you know, have you had product failures? I’ve had product failures of my own products. And, you know, me too yeah, yeah. And I’m like, oh, this is going to be a great product. I’m so excited to launch it.
Some people try and they’re just like, hang on, I’m just not feeling it enough. You know? And you know, I’m like, oh, I mean I’m like, it’s I think it’s working. It’s doing its job. Like, you know, look out for this. Yeah, it might be. But like, I really wanted to feel it. And you know, it’s a lot of capsules
and it’s just hard to get traction on some things.
you know, everyone does want like that immediate tangible benefit and sometimes especially with wellness products. And I’m sure you have this to like things take time. So like you might not feel something immediately.
but you know, some people get a little bit discouraged
and you know, so
it is hard with some products to,
get that traction on them.
But fortunate like we have so many products that people feel instantly or,
within a couple of weeks and they feel great on and they keep coming back for. So that’s really been our sweet spot with, you know, sports performance supplements.
I have no problem having customers addicted to something that’s good for them. And you know, if you can make a product that pumps people up with so much nutrition that they feel incredible and it’s improving their health, I mean, that is what you want. You talk about product failures. It’s funny because I’m reaching in front of me right here, and this is something that that I use almost every day.
It’s a it’s a topical aloe cream that my company manufactures. Well,
we formulate it, I should say.
We work with a laboratory, a cosmetic laboratory, much in the same way you with,
nutritional laboratory. And it was probably ten years ago where we changed the formula. We worked with a
chemist, and we sourced the ingredients. We were very picky with them. And, yes, that will work. And the chemists had us convinced and we got our new product delivered.
Pallets of boxes full of these tubes. And by the second day, I’m feeling the tube. I’m saying something doesn’t feel right. The tension is increasing. By the end of the week, they were all exploded. It was, you know, some kind of yeast contamination. And, you know, we’re being natural, trying to keep the preservatives low. And, utter failure.
It was, good learning experience. So, yes, sometimes things fail. Now, ten years later and, you know, we’ve got a great product and, and, people would, you know, probably threaten our lives if we discontinued making it.
Yeah, I can relate with, like some supplements, especially powders and clumping. You know, if you put a really strong formula together and the ingredients are
thick and,
it’s a strong formula,
it’s a lot easier for it to clump than if it’s just all bunch of fine powder and fillers and flavoring.
you know, we’ve been through those,
battles,
especially on with pump products where you do have so many heavy ingredients working together there
but that’s sometimes like that. That’s also the burden of trying to make a better product,
is that you also have to try to figure out, well, how do we make it better but still usable?
Okay. So.
Right. And I, I’m going to share the same struggles with you. Our products are actually very, very natural and our products are going to clump. I think of a spice that I purchased. You know what I like to do food. I like it, do it nice and healthy. And so instead of French fries, I’ll make air fried potatoes.
but I want them with that, you know, spice on it that it’s like spicy fries, you know. So everything’s healthy. And I got this one spice and you know, it was, you know, organic and clean and good ingredients. But after getting it and it was delicious, I had to call the company and say, is this normal? It’s got all kinds of clumping going on.
It’s not you know, it’s hard to get out and it’s like, almost like moist. They said, yes, that’s the way our spice is. We don’t put any fillers in it. We don’t put anything to stop that from happening. You know, our, our competition does, but that’s just not our and I could relate to that. It’s like, okay, that sounds like me.
I’m good with that. I would rather have it healthy and natural than have something harmful in there or not beneficial just so it sprinkles nicer. I don’t.
Want that. And, you know,
it’s great that you,
just ask the company,
is this normal? Because I know a lot of people would just automatically assume there’s a problem with the product and be upset. So,
the fact that you’re very conscious about, like,
seeing and not overreacting on what the situation was, I think is pretty commendable.
You know, I’m not everyone is that way.
so, you know, when we’re selling to 150 different retail stores and we’re not the one,
with my one brand, we do sell across the country,
even globally.
and to other mom and pop retail stores that kind appreciate the quality of product that we’re putting out and see the value in the products,
when we’re selling to them, where we don’t get to know or hear from the end consumer themselves.
So for that brand specifically,
I am risking upsetting not only,
an end consumer, but also a store owner that’s supporting my brand. So we have to be very careful.
things do happen sometimes. We’ve never had an issue with actually the product being what it is,
where the products being safe are not harmful for the customer.
But, you know, if the texture’s a little off, you will hear about it, you know, and, and,
I, you know,
a lot of different individuals,
both customers and, you know, our partners, which,
of course,
we want them to be we want everybody to be satisfied. Really.
I think that’s my hardest struggle and why I feel stressed a lot of the time is I want everyone to be happy all the time.
And it’s difficult to, you know, make everyone happy.
I do my best at it.
Yeah. That’s what it’s about. This. There’s going to be some Karens in the world that you can’t please. And that’s okay. We don’t need everyone to be our customer. We want to help the people. That can be helped, the people that want to help them and.
Appreciate and value what we’re doing.
Yeah, yeah. Good stuff.
who was it? Let me think about it. It was,
celebrity. I read something somewhere. It was a testimonial coming from,
an Olympian. Olympic medalist. He was also,
professional wrestler at some point in time. And he said something nice about your company and your brand.
Kurt Angle. Yeah.
so one of my, former store managers
still still works for me and has been there pretty much since the beginning with us.
he’s well connected with,
lot of especially,
you know,
professional wrestlers, celebrity wrestlers and,
yeah, he connected us with Kurt Angle. And Kurt Angle has been,
a great supporter of us.
And,
I appreciate he came out to one of our store openings,
several years ago, so that was really cool.
That that is cool. I, you know, watched him for years,
going back probably 15, 20 years ago, I don’t know, he’s been in it for a while, but,
I don’t know if he still wrestles. He’s probably older now and has all the injuries that, you know, prevent him from doing the things he used to. I would imagine it’s a brutal sport.
Yeah. For sure.
All right, well, Trevor,
this has been informative.
tell me about your the products that you make that you use daily.
so I use a lot of our products,
you know, particularly my two favorites.
you know what? I really highly suggest for a lot of people is something that’s going to help you for your workout and then something that’s going to help you recover after your workout. So right now, I’m taking this product called WARPATH
that is under our Sun Training Labs line.
it helps drive water and nutrients into your muscles and then helps your muscles contract harder and break down better. So it helps to increase hypertrophy, which is the muscle building process. As you’re contracting your muscles in the rep, you’re essentially getting more out of every rep here. Your workout is going to be that much more effective, and everything that you’re doing in the gym is going to be more worth it.
so I love that product. And then,
post-workout, we have this product called POST-FORMANCE by United Nutra
and this one has, you know, protein, carbs, bcaas, eaas, glutamine, creatine, magnum power,
amino acids or,
antioxidants and vitamins. Everything to help you with full recovery after you workout. So,
I feel myself very fatigued by the end of my workout.
That just replenishes everything that I’ve exhausted, helps you recover a lot faster. So those are like really two of my favorites. And then I take a lot of our, our wellness products or our sports multivitamin and immune support products. Digestive aid.
and I’m always kind of switching it up. So there’s a lot of things that I just, I love so much about this industry because we can make these products available to other people, and they’ve helped me so much this business really has the products and services that I wish I had when I started.
You know, I’d be so much further along. But, you know, I love the fact that,
it was a lot of struggle. But looking back,
really has been a journey. And I love the fact that I was able to just keep going, keep persisting, and eventually I’ve gotten where I wanted to go. And I’ve learned so many things on my own.
But with the help of others, I think it’s just really important to ask other people for help, you know, find the right people that can help you. People are willing to help.
I want to break down some of the things that you said, because the reality is, most of my following is not going to be after those particular products, because your goal is strength and fitness and those,
you know, things that you’re focusing on. And my audience might be older and they’re more concerned with, you know, cartilage and
aches and pains and having,
anti-inflammatory lifestyle and diet and supplementing for strengthening their immune system.
Those are different products. But if we were to look at what you had mentioned,
a supplement to help you during your workout, it’s funny because people think I’m going to the gym to get big. No you’re not. You’re going to the gym to break things down, to tear things down. You’re going to actually do damage to your body in a controlled fashion so that you don’t actually over injure yourself.
You’re actually doing micro trauma kind of spread out evenly so that you can heal stronger. So after you leave the gym, that’s when the strength part is actually happening, where you’re actually growing bigger and stronger as you’re recovering. So your body needs certain nutrients to make that happen. That’s why there’s a pre-workout and a post-workout.
That’s why there’s two supplements.
They’re not one in the same. It’s not like, take this and you’re going to get big.
Trevor’s taking a
approach where he’s supporting the workout itself and then the recovery, which is where you’re actually making your gains, your improvement when you’re rest, when you’re giving your body a chance to recover, repair, rebuild stronger than it was before you intentionally damaged it in the gym.
Yeah, it’s kind of a
funny way of looking at it, but that’s the truth.
people are looking for, you know, that one supplement is going to change everything for them. But it’s really about finding the things that are supplementing your routine, and it’s going to help your routine be better. So sometimes that’s getting you
into the healthy habit. You know, a stimulant based pre-workout might give you more energy for the gym so you feel more motivated to go, right.
but that pre-workout itself isn’t going to do the work for you.
it’s almost as much better than drinking an energy drink. But the source of energy is the same. And,
looking at your actual routine. And that’s why we like to have conversations with customers because you, you know, you can’t just ask me what’s best for weight loss or what’s best for muscle building or what’s best for this
without knowing your routine and what can
hopefully help you with that routine and improve things with within that.
to me it’s all about feeling good, right? The results that I’ve, I’ve gotten physically,
over the years has, has been wonderful. But I’ve only made progress when I physically have felt good. So when someone says like, I don’t care how much I have to struggle or, you know, or how I need to feel like I want to get these results.
And I say, if you’re not feeling good, you’re probably not going to get the results anyway.
you know, you have to find that really jives with your body and what feels good because,
getting into better shape is,
your body naturally doing it on its own with the aid of you, making the right habits and right choices.
So,
I, I’m just all about things that are just going to help you feel better overall.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense for me. I think there’s,
probably a few products that everyone could benefit from nutritionally. for instance, do you have a powdered fruits and vegetables supplement?
We, we we do carry,
other brands. Not we don’t have our own because we don’t have enough of a demand for that at this time. But yeah, we do.
Hardly anyone eats enough fruits and vegetables.
it’s great when you can scoop or even capsules. I in that particular area. I like a scoop because you can get a much larger serving size, and they can actually make them taste pretty decent. with,
you know, maybe,
the contrasting sweet and sour like lemon and stevia where it ends up tasting like lemonade, but you’re getting all these fruits and vegetables.
Where can people go to find out more? There’s your website, which is advancedsupps.com
All right. And you have a YouTube channel and some social media. What’s your favorite social media profile?
my Instagram, I’d say,
I love the visual aspect
of it. And, you know, being able to show like our customers get reviews and be able to feature kind of what we’re doing,
in our community is, is really great.
you can find all of the information on our website.
there is a picture of myself on the home page.
And when you click on that, you’ll see,
articles I’ve been listed in and, all my social media links,
any contact information that you need. I do have the Instagram at the bottom of the home page. I have my YouTube channel on there.
so really everything is there that you need. And feel free to use the chat feature no matter what the question is.
I really have no limitations on if there’s something that I can help you with, I’d be happy to answer.
All right. Great. I got one more question I should have asked this earlier. What books influenced you to, you know, on this path? Did you read anything about physical fitness or bodybuilding or nutrition?
I did, but I didn’t find any that were really what I was. Maybe I thought maybe it was what I was looking for. But looking back, a lot of
the books that I had looked into and there’s a lot of programs that I did too, where they’re all like, maybe based off of one principle or another.
And when I look back on them, a lot of them almost seem like fads or just very strict kind of methods that maybe will work for someone. But I think a lot of the times
these diets and programs work short term is because they’re restricting you so much, you know, so if you restrict
your diet and you follow something into it to a tee because you believe it’s going to work, if you really believe it’s going to work and they convince you it’s going to work and they tell you exactly what to do, that can get you somewhere.
But I have found in the long run, what has worked best for me is finding
my six meal a day diet that, you know, feels good to me.
I’m eating throughout the day. I’m eating a good amount of protein, good amount of carbs, good amount of healthy fats throughout the day. I’m eating whole foods.
I’m, you know, training,
consistently,
a lot of things I think is just being consistent and finding what feels good and works good for you. And I do have some of this information on the blog, on my website of what I found has worked well for me, and I like giving people as a direction of like, hey, you can try some of these things.
It’s all to me anti gimmick. It’s just feeling good and a lot of things I have tried and seen in the past that worked for a short period of time. I look at them now is very much just fads
or almost gimmicks because in the long run
I always hit a plateau. I never felt good and I didn’t get where I was wanting to go, and it honestly just made me more frustrated that I was putting in all this work and then getting stuck, still getting stuck.
So,
something you alluded to earlier is just the last thing that we want for people is to feel discouraged. They want something so bad they’re willing to put in the work, and they’re just discouraged because they don’t have the right information,
or the right products to help them or the right people. And that’s why I say the right, you know, information people and products can make all the difference.
And that’s really the difference between success and failure is having the right resources. They’re available to you and they’re out there. But Google is makes it a lot more complicated. And I think social media makes it a lot more complicated, too, because you have so many varying opinions. Being poured out there. And a lot of times people want to say, what’s controversial?
Oh, you believe this? Well, let me tell you, it’s actually this. Well, now you’re even more confused. And I think a lot of the secrets are not actually secrets. You know what’s good for you?
good eating
and training and sleeping habits are all good for you.
you know, supplements could be made out to be a really bad thing, but when they’re natural and holistic, they can be really beneficial to you to.
It’s funny because a lot of people are getting their medical information, their supplement information from influencers that got great Instagram channels but have very little knowledge. And there’s a caution there. Hey, Trevor, I want to thank you for joining me on the Dr Haley Show podcast. For everyone that’s listening,
there will be links to your website, and your social media channels on my blog page as well.
And below the video on YouTube,
check out its content. Enjoy. People. Thank you.
Trevor, thank you for having me.
I hope you enjoyed that episode today on the Doctor Haley Show. Make sure to hit subscribe on whichever platform you are listening to this. If this episode made you think of someone, go ahead, take a screenshot and share this exact episode with them. You can catch the show notes for this episode on Doctor haley.com. If you want to geek out with Doctor Michael Haley on other radical health topics.
Be sure to check out his YouTube channel where he posts exclusive video content. All the details are at Doctor haley.com, and we can’t wait to hang out with you on the next episode.
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