The Inventions Show
The Inventions Show
EP5: Josh Taekman, Founder & CEO of EBOOST. Hustle till the people you could never reach start reaching out to you.
Hustle till the people you could never reach start reaching out to you with Josh Taekman, Founder & CEO of EBOOST. A visionary and powerful innovator in brand marketing and business development, with a specialty in music, entertainment and consumer facing products. A master negotiator and deal maker who has the keys to putting the art of the deal together. Mind Changing, Life Changing and Business Changing.
Josh shares his career path from music marketing, including a partnership with hip-hop mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, to starting his own marketing agency Buzztone and transitioning to a multi-million dollar beverage energy brand EBOOST. With strong connections and business relationships across the globe with companies such as Apple, Pepsi, Microsoft, Samsung and Nike (just to name a few), Josh talks about the importance of relationship capital and his keys to forming these relationships.
"Connect with good people and give more than you take. Be a problem solver and not a problem dweller. It's like water in cracks, if you have a really good product or service, the water will find you in some capacity but you have to put it out there." ~Josh Taekman
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This is episode number 5 with Josh Taekman. Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the invention show a podcast about all things, invention and reinvention, where entrepreneurs, artists, influencers, and authorities in the field today share their story of triumphs and challenges in both life and business. My name is Tack Lee entrepreneur, international property investor inventor, and the host of this show. Now, today I've got a totally awesome special guests and thrilled to have him on the podcast. Josh Teakman, founder and CEO of EBOOST. Now he's a visionary, a powerful innovator in brand marketing and business development With specialty in music entertainment, and consumer facing products, you know, a true master negotiator and deal maker who has the keys to putting the art of the deals together. So totally mind changing life changing and business changing. So welcome to the show, Josh, and thanks for being with us.
Josh Taekman:Yeah. Thank you. And man, I can't wait to meet that guy that you just described.
Tack Lee:I'm speaking to him. I'm speaking to him.
Josh Taekman:Yeah. Well thank you. You're way too kind and generous for sure.
Tack Lee:Now the first thing I'll like to ask all my guests, you know, for those who are not familiar with self is can you please give us a window into your background and who you are and what was your first job?
Josh Taekman:Yeah, so my background, I grew up in a really nice little quaint suburb in Northern California, outside of San Francisco called Danville. It was like a small community, but it was like one of those communities where you knew every single person that lived there just by the car that they drove, it was a really amazing place to grow up. Um, I don't know how I got, I think it was Rapper's delight was the first rap song that I ever heard. And for some reason, like 11 years old, it really stuck with me and I loved it. And then I found myself, um, with one of my best friends at the time he had an older sister and her boyfriend lived a couple of towns over, um, and he was big into hip hop too. So he used to take us to these concerts when we were 11 years old, we'd take Bart to Oakland Coliseum. And I don't think my parents had any idea where I was going and what I was doing, but we are going to these amazing hip hop concerts at Oakland Coliseum at the age of 11 and 12. So it really got kind of, you know, it kind of got into my blood and I just became really passionate and addicted to that music and like learning about that culture. Cause I grew up in the most suburbs. It was, there was no, it was not a multicultural environment that I grew up in granted, Oakland and places like that were close by. But so I just kind of immersed myself in understanding the music and the players in the music space and just kind of studying it. And that carried me out through high school and college. I went to school, I graduated from university of Arizona and when I was at university of Arizona, I started doing nightclubs and doing concerts. Yeah. University of Arizona, much more urban based music. And I learned a lot of that from my days at San Diego state where my friends were all nightclub promoter. So I kind of took what they were doing in San Diego or I brought it to Tucson.
Tack Lee:Oh, that's awesome. Well, so now being a Yoda in branding, marketing and sponsorship, and going back early on to your career with bad boy entertainment, you have inked countless endorsements and cross promotional opportunities, you know, partnerships with superstars and like Jay Z, Busta rhymes and Lauren Hill. And you know, you basically also pioneered P.Diddy or Puff Daddy Combs brand earlier on. Can you please share your story at bad boy? And how did you like basically yeah. Into the hip hop area, how did you get on his radar?
Josh Taekman:It was interesting because I lived in LA and I ended up moving to New York on a whim. And when I was in LA, I interned at a, at a hip hop record label called tough break with a guy named Evan Forester. Um, you know, literally when, I mean entering me and you got paid nothing. And I think on Fridays we got to go eat from the food cart for free, but I just loved it, but it was a small little independent label that was part of A&M records. So there really weren't like a lot of positions to grow into there. Um, but I just love being around the music and then I'd have to do production work on the side to cover, pay my bills and all that. And then I ended up taking a real job at like an entertainment marketing company and Mmm. And I took a job at entertainment marketing company and was doing that for a while, but I was always enamored with New York. And so there was a trade show happening in Washington, D C and one of my friends was out in New York modeling. And so he said, well, why don't you come visit me and stay with me before you go to DC? And so absolutely that would a great, great idea. So I think I went through like on a Thursday and my trade show started on a Monday in DC and I flew to New York actually for the second time. First time I went like upstate for something separate, but I'd never been to New York city. And I took the the bus in from JFK, which was chaotic. My first experience in New York was not great. I'm just like, this is JFK. This is the infamous global, you know, US hotspot. And I said, this place is a dump. And then taking the bus into the city, I'm just like damn, this is a little rough and rugged. Uh, and it took forever of course and traffic. But once I got into New York city, it was like a whole different thing, man. It was just like this, just the energy just like basically took over your whole body. You're floating in a sea of like 10 million people. You just felt like this chaos and people and noise and energy, but you felt, you just kinda like slided slighted through them. And then I went to his apartment, which wasn't really an apartment. It was a studio, the size of like a cell phone. I couldn't believe that any human being could live in a space that small, let alone two of us stay there for four or five days. Um, but I quickly just, I fell in love with New York. And so after being there for four days, I just looked at my other buddy that lived there and I said, I'm moving here. And he said, yeah, right. And he goes, I'll tell you this. If you get here in the next 30 days, you can stay at my, in my apartment for free, as long as you want. I literally went back to, went back to LA, I quit my job. I collected, you know, four or five, six grand in commissions, which was everything that I owned. Returned my car dropped all the stuff at my parents' house in Northern California bought a one way ticket to New York with no job, free floor to sleep on, um, and had to figure out what I was going to do. So it was interesting. So I was kind of like too proud to be an assistant in the music industry and not necessarily qualified to be like a brand manager or product manager. So I ended up spending the first three months in New York, just like going out every night, getting to know the city, getting to know people, building a network and friends, and really immersing myself in the New York culture. And I ran out of money and I had to get a job and they couldn't really find a position that was fitting for me in the music industry. Uh, so I ended up taking, you know, some random jobs that were still kind of entertainment based. They didn't really excite me or keep me motivated in any way. And my roommate worked for Hugo boss. And so she was in charge of all the marketing and they sponsored the shoes, tennis tournament in Florida, right outside of South beach. So she's like, come with me and help me run the VIP hospitality booth. And I'm like fantastic. A free week in Miami, South beach at a tennis tournament hanging out. I was in, so I was doing that and I saw my, I saw the guy that owned tough break records, the very first place I worked at. And he's like, Oh, give me some tickets. I want to bring some people so sure enough, I hook him up and he comes up to the VIP suite and he brings us this guy, Jeff Burrows with him and he introduces me and Jeff's like, yeah, Evan's like, no. Jeff is the new president of bad boy entertainment. You know, he is a long time friend, let's try just wrapped with him for a little bit. And in the back of my mind, I'm just like, that's where I want to work. I want to work at bad boy. You know, growing up, I've always followed Puffy as a producer, even as an intern at uptown and all the music and his fingerprints that he had on Joe D see and Mary J Blige. So in the back of my mind, like, wow, bad boy would be a great place to kind of do what I want to do. And I didn't really say what I really wanted to do, but the idea is I wanted to be back in the music industry and do marketing yeah. Marketing for the artists, but also creating marketing and opportunities for the artists. So all the brand endorsements sponsorship partnership event activation. So that really was kind of like where I would call my kind of like super power I wanted to plan. And now fast forward to Jeff. So I'm like, I would love to work at bad boy and be that kind of bridge between corporate America brands leveraging the artists and the talent and the music and just create really like unique called nontraditional partnerships and opportunities and traditional partnerships. So I didn't really get the balls up to say anything to Jeff other than just like wrap up them for a bit. So I got back to New York, like two weeks later and I just kept was on the back of my mind. I'm like, you know, I should just cold call this guy and pitched the idea to him. So sure enough, I cold call his office and he calls me back. He's like, yeah, I remember meeting you and the thanks for hooking us up. And I'm like, well, I really want to talk to you about an idea I had. And there's another guy that was already doing something very similar, Steve Rifkind at SRC. And he was doing a really great job at it. So he had kind of already proven that concept out. Cause there was a big void in brands and corporate America understanding how to tap into kind of that culture and music and lifestyle, particularly like hardcore hip hop scene. So I meet up with Jeff, I pitched him the whole idea. He's like, yeah, that sounds cool. I get it. I think Puffy would like that. I totally get it and think it would be great to have something like that. So it's like put together a business plan and I'll set up a meeting with Puffy and you can pitch it to him. So sure enough, I go through all of my ideas and what I would do and my version of a business plan. Mind you, I didn't go to Harvard or anything like that. So, um, at the very end I put like$2,000, just like, you know, I wanted to show him like I was really willing to take basically nothing and really commit myself and show that I put sweat equity in and he started laughing and I thought he was laughing like, come on, no one can live on$2,000 in New York. As he pulls up in like a brand new$200,000 benz and he goes$2,000? You want me to pay you$2,000? I said, yeah, I just want to show you I'm committed. He goes, fuck that, I ain't paying you shit. His exact words, he goes you eat, what you kill. So if you're about it and you think you can do it, then you eat what you kill and if you're not, then that's good, then don't do it. But I'm not paying you anything. You got to earn it.
Tack Lee:Wow. That must be a great, great intro to Puffy.
Josh Taekman:Yeah. Well I did listen. He was just straight up about it. So I respected that. At least he was candid, but it's funny. It's like just a couple of months before I was too proud to be an assistant and get paid and I'm talking about going to work for free. That's the irony of it.
Tack Lee:All right. So now you've got, um, you know, got lots of connections and business relationships basically around the globe. And how do you maintain and what is your key to a good relationship with all these Forbes 500 top companies such as Apple, Pepsi, Microsoft, Nike just to name a few.
Josh Taekman:I mean, honestly I just, I like people and I try and connect with people and I don't make it about a one way relationship. I make it about a friendship and I've always learned kind of my motto is you got to give people four times more than you that you ever asked for. If you're the one always giving without asking then ultimately they feel like, you know what, I want to help this guy out. Cause I want to give something back to them. So I'm always super, it's just, my nature is just to always try and connect with people, the good people, so that a universal power out there that brings good people together and somehow karma connects at some point. Yep. So that's always been my motto. So I always try. And, you know, first of all, I try and always be respectful for anyone I meet and speak to them with my undivided attention, which I think is important. I think I realized remembering people's name is important. So I always make a habit of calling people by their name, even if I've only met them once, you know, you meet multiple people through different events. So I think it's important that you're able to remember when and how you met them and remind them that, Oh, we met at the such and such through such and such and we have mutual friends, such and such. And I just think that helps when you can connect through mutual friends and just, it just aligns the bond a little bit stronger. So I've always been pretty good at that. And I've traveled quite a bit when I say travel, you know, go to all the events, whether it's the super bowl is the NBA, all stars, Sundance kind of like all the big marquee events and music, fashion entertainment. I kind of always been doing that since post-college. So I think through the course of those called circuits, you meet a lot of really cool, interesting people.
Tack Lee:Oh, that's, that's cool. That's cool. Now out of curiosity, Josh, you know, you are the master in marketing, what do you think about celebrity branding? You know, companies spend so much on celebrity branding and as it draws the crowd and people want to see it, what is your concept of celebrity branding for today's a budding entrepreneurs?
Josh Taekman:Um, you know what, I, I think that it's all about doing it, right? There's a lot of bad examples of celebrity branding. And I don't think any celebrity can carry the load of a brand. I think it's lost a lot of its cache. Cause I think people realize a lot of people are doing it for money. And then I think they also realize that there's a lot of people doing it. So it's not that unique, you know, we're doing it with Puffy, like he was breaking color borders, right? Like he is this top African-American hip hop artist that has completely crossed over into mainstream America. I mean, he was on the cover of Vogue for God's sake. You know what I'm saying? So it was just an interesting time back in the nineties. Cause you know, hip hop music took over rock and roll is the number one listened to music format. So that just exposed the artists and the talent. And then the media means the media outlets like VH1, MTV, BET where the main ways that culture got their information and really a lot of trends were dictated out of those music videos. A majority of the trends were dictated out of music videos. So it was a very, very powerful source to connect with an audience and community.
Tack Lee:Yeah. Cool. Totally, totally. Now does a whole generation, you know, of how to make millions with no work and no effort, get rich quick culture today, teaching people how to make six, seven figures, sometimes per month and showing off their cars on social media. I mean, what's your overall take on it? You know why so many people are drawn to it?
Josh Taekman:I don't know, but if you know someone that knows a quick get rich quick path I'm I'm in, I tried a few and I've always struck out. I've never gotten across the finish line with anything that was just shortcut. I mean, I've looked and I continue to look, but it's hard to find a good shortcut, but I will say that. Um, so back to the question, um, I think, I think people's egos are at hand. I think people don't ever want, they always want to portray success. So I think social media allows them to portray a certain type of lifestyle that they want others to be reflective of them. I think we're all guilty. I'm definitely guilty of it. Everyone's guilty of it. And it's polarizing when you're on Instagram. Cause you're always like, damn someone has a better than me for sure. And there's usually a lot of people that just so you definitely get envious and jealous when you scan, when you scroll through Instagram, but you gotta remember, everyone's only showing their best life. They're also showing the life that doesn't necessarily belong to them. And I'm also guilty of that. So it's just what it is. You know, if you're on Instagram, you know, you're, you're flossing and you're trying to show that excitement. I don't know. However, however you use your platform and that's what you're trying to put out there in some capacity. So I think it's important. It's meaningful. It allows me to stay in touch with people or just be familiar with what people are doing in their life. So you still feel connected without having to physically talk to them. It does allow you to kind of stay tuned with their day to day lifestyle, but as it relates to, it's also a medium to build your own brand because when people look into you, they look at your social handles first and foremost. So in a sense that's truly a reflection of who you are and what you do. And you can tell a lot about someone's character through how they handle their socials.
Tack Lee:That's true. That's true. Now after bad boy, you started your own marketing agency, Buzztone which did exceptionally well, you know, from there, how did you actually transition and get into the energy and supplements industry such as you know EBOOST, I mean, not only that you decided to go natural, which wasn't really back then. So how was that transition and what you do anything differently?
Josh Taekman:Mmm. That's a good question. Um, god. Say it one more time. So I answer it correctly.
Tack Lee:Yep. So it's like after the bad boy you started Buzztone and then how did you transition into basically EBOOST and going into an industry where you didn't really know that much about.
Josh Taekman:Yeah, that's what I thought. So it was, um, so I started a marketing agency and we were kind of an experiential marketing agency. We did a lot of peer to peer marketing, influencer marketing, celebrity driven marketing endorsement deals, uh, not traditional advertising. So really EBOOST, I always just love chasing ideas and they were just more instinctual kind of like passion projects than like, well thought out business plans and really doing business analysis on the marketplace. It was much more of an instinctual thing. So I didn't have the benefit of having an MBA or the type of education you get at like an Ivy league school. So I was definitely much more of the school of hustle and figure it out. Mmm. And so we had, I was running a marketing agency and um, someone came into me with one of their clients and other agency and said, Hey, I don't, I have no idea about this, this audience that he wants to reach, but he wants to create a line of vitamins for the urban marketplace or multicultural. And I said, great. And so I met with them and he was big and creating a lot of different product lines. And he did like a lot of the private label stuff for vitamin Shoppe and GNC. And he's a chemist and had his own manufacturing plants. So he was well situated in a multibillion dollar category, but there was really no lifestyle marketing involved in the supplement category. When he came to me, it's just like a light bulb went in my head and I said, Jesus. I said, imagine like right now, when people think of supplements, they think of like gold gyms and like a bodybuilder and like a meathead, right? Like if you're going to take a preworkout, you're kind of a meathead that was kind of like. And Fitness, it's just starting to come into its own. You know, a lot of people worked out for sports and athletics and then the other ones worked out to like have a specific body, you know, to kind of support a specific type of personality. But lifestyle was not fitness. Wasn't like such a big trend at the time, but it was starting to become, you know, people all wanted to have that rip body that looks like, you know, that they were in prison for three years as opposed to gym for like long lean. You know, you see, especially in the music videos, the guys doing pull ups on the street corners where they just have like big wide lats and arms and probably no legs. But that was like a new trend that was starting to happen. Fitness were starting to really take off places like Equinox gyms, we're starting to become a national footprint. So I said, well, if you really want to shortcut this and really tap into culture and the people that I think are not necessarily today's pre-workout or protein drinkers, but tomorrows, cause there's definitely going to be a shift. I said, let's go partner with this kid 50 cent he's he's the hottest thing and hip hop music right now. And he's got this whole crew called G unit and they just launched a Reebok sneaker. That's doing great. And they launched G Unit clothing, which is great. I think most importantly is that I think 50 would love it. I think he would help design products that you would really take every single day and live by. And I think he'd much rather be in the gym sippinga protein shake than be in the club drinking champagne, which was true. I mean the guy works out like an absolute animal. And so, I pitched that idea. He had no idea who 50 was and he's like, ah, sounds cool. Let's go meet him. So we set up the meeting, you know, they hit it off. They definitely were definitely nerding out on products and formulas and ingredients and what he takes and what he thinks of them and which ones are good and which ones are bad and why.
Speaker 1:And so they really hit it off. So we came up with the idea of creating a joint venture and creating supplements. And we were going to do that. And for me it was great cause I was bringing the talent and the brand and the business together. And then I would have been responsible for all the marketing. Late, late 2000 before vitamin water. And so all we had to do is, so Mel was working on formulas, the lawyers were putting together paperwork. It was going to be a real joint venture. And then 50 was getting ready to go away to Europe for three months for a European tour. And they were going to meet on Friday the day before he left exit 45 in long Island and three o'clock meeting. And sure enough, they called me from New Jersey and his manager and they're like, Oh, we're still a Jersey.
Josh Taekman:It's going to be tough with traffic, for us to get there. And I'm like, great, get a helicopter. I mean, take a plane from Newark to Islam. Like, like there's a way to get it figured out, but it's 12 o'clock you got three hours or 11 o'clock you got four hours and that's just put a knot in my stomach. I'm just like, this is not a good sign. The fact that they're already calling and trying to just turn it into a phone call. I, I just know Mel's quirky personality. Like if you don't commit and you don't show up and he's just going to think you're not serious and sure enough, that's what happened. And the deal never happened and 50 never made it, thought he could call and went off to Europe and have wild success in everything, including vitamin water. But I think that, I think GNU vitamins and supplements could have really broken through in an interesting way, in an explosive way, in a category that wasn't expecting this kind of marketing or talent to be. Okay. And so, yeah, so through that, I was having lunch with a buddy and we started talking and commiserating and we just started talking about our own needs states and saying, wow, I mean, neither of us would drink red bull or monster. And the few times I would drink a pre-workout I thought my heart was going to come out of my skin and I couldn't work out. So I'm just like, God, there's just no healthy, clean energy drinks out there. Imagine if like Berocca, which was a product that was mostly vitamin C B12 from Europe, but they had like a really cool personality and people took it for different reasons. Um, imagine if like, Berocca, emergency airborne and like a healthy, natural version of energy all came together and I'm like, that's a product I would take every single day. We got importers. We got people bringing it into Australia.
Tack Lee:That's cool. That's cool. Now I just want to quickly touch on strategy. What's your strategy for differentiation for EBOOST?, Because there's a lot coming on the market, especially now.
Josh Taekman:Yeah. I mean, I think we've disrupted the packaging. I think we've taken a totally unique approach in our packaging. So it stands out. It was much more about the benefit why you would take it. So like our, our drink is called super fuel and then it's called you're kicking the can.
Tack Lee:Yes. The website looks good.
Josh Taekman:Yeah. Uh, and then, um, all of the branding is different. It's all about the functionality and the reason why to take it, not so much about the brand. I think, you know, we're still a super small brand, so it's the personality it's like where we show up and how we show up and who we're aligned with. And not through like traditional, not, not through like traditional advertising and stuff are much more event related and associations with different talents and, you know, marketing wise, we were just trying to, you know, I learned early, it was a rocket fire approach. I just would just hand out samples everywhere. We have so little distribution, but I'm all over the country. It really never tied back to getting the product sold.
Tack Lee:Yeah. I mean, just going back when you said, when you said EBOOST is a super small brand, how did you manage to, you know, create a brand with a super high profile list? I mean, such as Oprah, I mean, you got, you got onto her favourites list and then people Heidi Klum, Victoria Beckham and our local hero here Hugh Jackman. How did you get on to, what was your angle there?
Josh Taekman:Uh, you know what? We were just really fortunate. We were fairly connected and we were able to just get the product in people's hands. And it was funny. I was, I was leasing my house in LA and I was, I was trying to sublease it and this guy showed up and was looking at the place and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he spotted a box of EBOOST. And he starts talking about himself, like in the third person to his assistant, like, well, what do I fly? Why do I only fly Virgin America? And she's like, cause they have EBOOST. It's like, what's my favorite product. She's like EBOOST, who do I give a boost to? She's like everyone, who else loves EBOOST, and she is like Brad Pitt and Jonah. And so like, he's a big time director. And he just like did Moneyball with like Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. He's like, I give EBOOST to all of the stars, all the stars. And they all love it all day. Every day on set everyone's asking for my EBOOST, I have to bring in so much EBOOST just to give it to the crew and the staff and the talent. And I'm like, wow, that's amazing. I wish, I wish I knew a million people like you. Yeah. So the point is it's like water in a crack. If you have a really good product, the water find you in some capacity, but you have to put it out. You have to make it. You have to make an effort to get the product in the right circles. And then you just hope people's stomach stumble across it. Cool.
Tack Lee:Now your work ethic is impeccable, you know, as a serial entrepreneur, Josh, what do you think your biggest area for improvement or challenges is to date? I mean, both in life and business, has it been all rainbows and unicorns?
Josh Taekman:I wish, show me a unicorn. I want to catch a ride. No, it's been grind, trap hustle. It's like it's nonstop. You know, everyone, everyone is not meant to be an entrepreneur. That's for sure. And I, and I say that with all seriousness, like you have to be prepared to do all the shit that sucks. You have to be prepared to be the only one in the office, not making any money. You have to be the one prepared that has to figure out how to keep the lights on. You have to be the one that takes all the risk. You have to carry all the liability. You are responsible for pulling that train regardless. And then once you got, once there's you have people on the train, then you even have more responsibility. So small businesses, one, two people like you could sleep a little better at night, but when you start getting 10, 15, 20, that's a lot of people you're accountable for. Yeah. And their livelihoods and their wellbeing. So I mean, it's incredibly exciting and it's definitely for certain types of personalities. Um, you know, there's plenty of days. I wish I wasn't that guy, you know, but then there's the fulfillment of being your own boss and being able to chart your own course. And it's, everything is really more about personal, personal challenges. Like I think I can do, I know I can do it and I'm willing to take on the challenge.
Tack Lee:Yeah. Now you've reinvented yourself know multiple times through your journey. If you could go back and talk to your 18 year old self or, or a bit younger, what would you tell him?
Josh Taekman:You know, honestly, I would have taken education more serious if I, if I could, if I could really go back, um, I would have taken education more serious. I would've got a master's degree or a law degree because I just think having one of those others just gives you certain thought process and the ability to problem solve and start and finish projects efficiently and effectively. And I think it also teaches you like focus and discipline to be able to really start to finish do that. So I think, I think I missed that kind of a structure and knowledge base. Um, and I think if I had that, I'd just be way more effective than everything that I do. And I'd probably be more laser focused and less distracted. Um, but I would say the other thing is organization like I'm not great at organizing myself or my database or just the things around me my day to day life. I could be much better at that or allowing someone to help me organize it.
Tack Lee:Turning point. When you look back at your entire life, everything that you have, your business and everything, is there one thing that changed everything for you? A moment that you look back and you go aha that's the moment that basically changed?
Josh Taekman:I don't think there's any, well, I think that the moment that changed for me is when I heard the song Rapper's delight, cause it really opened my mind up to a whole nother universe and another culture. And I was really excited about the music and the culture and the fashion and everything that went with it. So I think it got me and I think people would say that about a sports moment too. It really got them, you know, when such and such hit a home run with his favorite team, it made him want to be a baseball player. So I just think that stuck me into a culture that I wanted to be a part of. And there's a lot of ways to play in that world, whether it's fashion, entertaining, fashion, entertainment, music, movies, whatever that is. But there's an interesting lifestyle that's associated with those kinds of professions.
Tack Lee:Okay, cool. Now we've got an audience of, you know, from over 90 countries here, you know, listening and watching. In interesting times like this, you know, what would your advice for those who want to start a business or already in a business? You know, some countries are starting to open up, but in general, people are still at home and there's a lot of so called free time. I mean, what should people be doing right now in your view? So they can come out firing?
Josh Taekman:I think, I think they should be, uh, focusing where they can get success and just being laser focused on. So if it's revenue based and profitability, I think this is a moment where you got to step back and you gotta take a real self examination of your overhead and your cost structure. And right now it's about being lean and mean and focused to getting to profitability or more profitability in your business or profitable to keep things going at a pace that you're comfortable with. So I think it allows you to do an audit almost on your current business and then figure out like where there needs to be some pivots or where are the areas that are successful or drill down on those.
Tack Lee:Gotcha. Gotcha. Now introduce super fuel. Um, as you mentioned early on, you know, I think about a year ago and then also landed a, a joint venture with Arizona beverages. So in your opinion, and how do people know when it's time to reinvent themselves or their business? I mean, what are the triggering factors?
Josh Taekman:I think it's, I think there's a natural course. I also think it takes some creativity. It's all about the idea and understanding if there's a right space for it and then creating some proof points, right? Like, yeah, we always said like our powder would make a great drink, but in order to do a drink, you have to have it a ridiculous amount of capital and resources. It's so labor intensive, you know, you're talking about weights and measures and Dems, it's expensive to ship all this water across the country cause the majority of it's water, right? So that creates a huge cost structure being able to do it. So in order to, and any beverage to go raise a significant amount of money, and we've been fortunate over the years, we've raised money, you know, from family and friends and just one amazing family office. So we've been really blessed, but we've never raised enough to go build a massive team or to really try and scale, which maybe I would have done differently earlier. Knowing what I know now, I think you figure out a, what did, what can your team handle, right? Everyone has everyone has big dreams. And I think sometimes creativity can kill success because you're so busy chasing the next idea and the next product that you don't give your existing skews, you know, the right screw rationalization or where the right, you might start seeing success. Like we're starting to see success in our pre-workout. So we're putting way more resources into supporting that as opposed to going and creating protein and greens and this and that. Yeah. Be more successful with what you have.
Tack Lee:That's a good one. That's that's going to go into my book, that one, I'm going to write that one there. Now the wellness space is ever growing as you know, and it's grown tremendously in the last 10 years, especially in the last 10 years. Where do you see the future and what trends do you anticipate with dominated in the next 10 years?
Josh Taekman:I think it's going to change technologies can change things overnight, right? No one ever thought about zoom fitness. I mean, you started having Peloton and mirror and those things, which are a microcosm of them in a different way. But I think that when technology allows platforms to innovate your business, like Instagram, Instagram is a business for a lot of people. So I think it'll just create, it'll create new opportunities for those that spend the time and energy to develop them. So I know trainers right now. They're like, why in the world would I ever go back to working in the gym? Well, I can just do my zoom training. I can get 12 people in the class and I keep a hundred percent of the money.
Tack Lee:Yes. There's a lot happening like that at the moment.
Josh Taekman:Yeah. So I think there's some good things that came out of it.
Tack Lee:So what's exciting for Josh Teakman at the moment. You know, what are you doing to position yourself for the, uh, the new normal?
Josh Taekman:I mean, I've been living it day in and day out. You just have to, you just have to accept what the conditions are and be overly communicated with your team and make sure that you guys are all aligned with what, you know, the next, because this is a day by day thing. What does the next day, two days look like and how are we going to tackle it
Tack Lee:Crazy world we live in at the moment. Now, if you could have a billboard with anything on it, Josh, what would it be and why?
Josh Taekman:It would say, this is one of my favorite sayings hustle till the people you could never reach, start reaching out to you.
Tack Lee:That's another, that's another that's gold. That's gold.
Josh Taekman:Do you know what I'm saying? It just means so much. There's so much in those words, I would put that on a billboard or a hustle includes Sundays is my other favorite.
Tack Lee:Now what superpower do you wish you have and why?
Josh Taekman:What super power. Mmm. I would say just organization, you know, like I have a guy Thomas that, well, maybe not organization, maybe more well rounded. Like this guy is like MacGyver. Oh, we need to build a website. We need, we need to build a website. 30 minutes later, check this out. What do you think? That like, you just did that and he's like, yeah. I just went online and knew how to do this, this and this and 30 minutes later it's up. I mean, this kid can do everything. He's literally like a French MacGyver. So I'm not that, you give me a hammer. It's like the only thing that's going to happen is I'm going to get hurt.
Tack Lee:Awesome. Now with the work towards wrapping up and super mindful for your time, you know, fantastic shares really appreciate your transparency and authenticity. Just two last questions. first is where can people find out more about yourself and EBOOST?
Josh Taekman:EBOOST.com is a great place to start.
Tack Lee:And secondly, what parting words of wisdom would you like to share for our listeners?
Josh Taekman:I think optimism. I think you always have to, like, there's always going to be problems and challenges, but you just have to be a problem solver, not a problem dweller. Too many people dwell on the problem and spend more time just focusing on the solution.
Tack Lee:That's cool. That's cool. Incredible learnings and knowledge, um, Thanks again Josh, you know, I'll let you go really appreciate your time and yeah. All the best.
Josh Taekman:All right. Thank you.
Tack Lee:All right, guys. I hope y ou h ave enjoyed this interview. You can find me on social media at@iam.tacklee and a lso@liveternx. Thanks for listening. And I'll see you in the next e pisode.