Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast.
Today's episode working title is what you don't see while building a supplement brand.
I've been thinking a lot about this last couple of weeks, when my morning runs especially post Ironman.
My running volume has decreased significantly.
As I've talked about, strength training has increased, which feels really good.
And right now I'm running about 20 to 25 miles per week.
So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, five miles every morning.
And then Saturday morning is either a five mile or 10 mile run or somewhere in between.
Occasionally I'll run more or less, but that is generally fine what my running training looks like right now.
And I do a lot of my reflection during those morning runs.
Even now, you know, five mile runs take significantly less time than when I was running nine 10, 11 plus miles each day.
But it still stimulates a lot of just thought and perspective and the last couple of years it's been really powerful for my entrepreneurial journey for BPN.
And something I've been thinking about this last couple of weeks.
Like I said, post Ironman on these morning runs is all about how I want to approach 2026.
The focus.
And for much of 2025, It was fitness content.
It was around the Ironman prep and documenting that and the journey of preparing to race an Ironman.
2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run.
Took a lot of time, built a lot of fitness, accomplished the goal.
But going into 2026.
What I want to focus on in terms of a lot of the content what I'm documenting on YouTube and sharing even the podcast is more of a behind the scenes look into building the brand and BPN.
And there's a lot that we do that we don't showcase or share.
And there isn't really an intent or reason behind that.
It's just because for much of the time, the focus is around the fitness and the prep and the results.
But the reality is much of my time, much of my thought process, a lot of my energy, physical and mental, goes into building BPN.
And I want to share more of that.
And this episode right here kind of lays the foundation for some of what I'll be sharing going into this next year and beyond that, because it's where a lot of my passion lies and exists.
I love building BPN.
I've loved building this brand for the last 13 plus years, which is crazy to say, 13 years of of discipline and commitment and consistency of building.
Recently on Instagram, I shared this photo that I came across in just my photo albums on my phone.
And it was this image from 2000, probably 13, maybe 14, two to three years after starting BPN.
And this photo was my brother and my mom.
And they were behind this BPN booth that was located at this CrossFit gym right outside of our local town Palmyra Pennsylvania, where me and Preston grew up, right outside of Hershey, Pennsylvania.
And while I was in the army...
I started BPN in 2012, graduated from college 2013, commissioned the US Army, went right to Fort Benning Georgia, for a year before being stationed at Fort Hood Texas, for my first duty assignment.
While I was traveling with the military in and out of training, my family stepped up and truly supported and assisted me in building BPN.
And I could not have gotten BPN to where it is today.
I would not be sitting here right now if it wasn't for a lot of people in my life and that help and that support.
You guys are much to thank as well.
If you consume our content, if you support BPN, you buy the products.
We cannot be doing, I cannot be doing what I and we are doing without you.
So thank you.
But there's also been people along the way like my family, like friends, like people who have dropped what they were doing and joined me in this purposeful mission of building BPN along the way.
And this image that I came across from, like I said 2013, 2014.
It means a lot to me because at that time I was either at Fort Benning Georgia, or Fort Hood in and out of training.
And my family was going to these local gyms and CrossFit competitions and events and setting up a booth and laying out product BPN product to try to build the brand.
And it wasn't super successful.
There are a few people who might've been interested and a few people who might've purchased, but it means a lot to me.
And this journey over the last 13 plus years has been so hard, so challenging, but also so fulfilling and rewarding.
And I believe a lot of the things that we do behind the scenes should be talked about more often.
And that's what I want to do with some of the content moving forward.
Now every year for the last couple of years, I've created a brand manifesto before we enter a new year and I share it with the BPN team.
And I recently drafted the 2026 brand manifesto.
I shared it with the team and I want to share it with you guys.
Now the brand manifesto.
For me, it sets the tone, it lays the foundation for It, establishes the standard and expectations going into a new year.
So I'm going to read it first and then we'll talk about it a little bit.
But this is meant to be powerful.
It's meant to be inspirational.
It's meant to really call everyone to action as a part of this team and say hey, this is what we're going to do this year.
So if you want to be a part of this, let's go.
If you don't, that's okay.
But here's where we're going.
Here's where we're heading.
Here's how we're getting there.
So 2026 BPN brand manifesto.
Burn the boats is a powerful metaphor for total commitment, meaning to eliminate all options for retreat, creating a point of no return to force complete focus on achieving a goal.
Let's burn the boats as we prepare for battle entering 2026.
There's a fine line that separates deliberate execution and disruptive differentiation for a brand on a mission to take a stance and leave a legacy.
We can't spend this next year sitting back and playing it safe.
This is our year to generate influential momentum.
A force of this magnitude doesn't happen on its own or by chance.
It is thoughtfully planned, prepared, and executed collectively as a team.
It is calculated and predicted.
It is proven by effort and sheer work.
Don't rely on yourself to accomplish this task.
Lean on your team to deliver the results.
Organizations that attempt to run the same playbook year after year die young, and teams that refuse to pivot when the writing is on the wall are cowards.
We are courageous warriors.
We welcome change because we know it breaks the brittle and reinforces the strong.
We know who we are, what we stand for, and what we are capable of.
Lack of intentionality leads to a repetition of what is easiest.
And this year should be hard.
It should challenge you more than you've ever been challenged before.
Your ability will be stretched and your limits will be tested.
There will be tough days along the way, but that is why we are here.
For the committed doesn't attract mediocrity.
It despises it.
We rejoice in our suffering, knowing that it produces endurance.
This business has been built from the ground up.
The foundation is steady and we are unwavering in the pursuit.
Like a house that has been built on a rock.
There is wisdom behind the thoughts, words and practices that we demonstrate.
That wisdom will guide our trajectory.
Step into 2026 with ambition.
Rid yourself of pride and arrogance.
Embody humility and show up every single day as a selfless leader to those around you.
We are all responsible for what is accomplished in the next year.
And that accountability starts now.
Go one more.
So I shared that on Instagram today.
Last week.
The feedback was great.
There's one comment though.
That made me laugh.
And it made me laugh.
Because it's true.
But I want to explain.
The comment said.
You guys sell supplements.
Chill.
You aren't storming the beaches of Normandy.
And I read this.
I was like come on man.
And I thought you know what.
That's true.
That's true.
We do sell supplements and we aren't storming the beaches of Normandy.
You got me there.
However, that is a perspective, but it doesn't take into account the power of leadership.
Leadership is influence, and that influence has the ability to to shift the trajectory, for good or evil, of an organization, team members individuals,
There is a lot of power in leadership and influence.
And what I wanted to convey in this brand manifesto and I believe that it did was passion and purpose.
And the truth is that when you have true, authentic passion and purpose, it drives and creates potential.
It's really hard to have potential without passion and purpose.
And you have to believe, you must believe in what you're doing and why.
And it can't be just the leader or the leadership team that believes.
It has to be everyone in the organization.
I've been a part of teams.
I've been a part of organizations in the past where some people are bought in and some people aren't.
And some people drink the Kool-Aid and some people don't.
And that divide limits the potential.
It limits the outcome of the organization.
It drives more towards failure than success.
So yes, we do sell supplements and we aren't storming the beaches of Normandy, but I take this stuff serious.
Truly serious.
I believe too many people sell themselves short.
They say, I'm just a blank.
You can insert any job title there.
I'm just a salesman.
I'm just a teacher.
I'm just a soldier.
I'm just a dentist.
I'm just a garbage man.
I'm just, I'm just that.
I'm just this.
When you say those words, as my good friend Chad Wright says, your tongue is your rudder.
When you belittle yourself, you belittle your team, you belittle what you are trying to accomplish.
You instantaneously reduce the potential of what you can accomplish.
Your tongue is your rudder.
So if we were to say, We just sell supplements.
It limits what we can actually accomplish, because we reduce ourselves and our ability and what we are pursuing.
Your tongue is your rudder.
I was recently listening to the Founders Podcast, which is one of my favorites.
It's hosted by David Senra.
And he was interviewing... who is the founder of Cane's Chicken Fingers.
And Todd Graves has built an absolutely amazing business and owns most of the company still, which is very rare.
Typically at that size and scale, a founder has sold something Minority or majority of the company partnered with some sort of investor, potentially private equity.
But Todd Graves has not.
He owns majority of the company still.
And Todd Graves talks about his passion and purpose behind building Keynes.
And he calls it a chicken finger dream.
If someone told Todd Graves in the beginning, dude, chill, you just sell chicken fingers.
It's not that big of a deal.
That would have limited, or could have limited, if Todd Graves would have bought into it his potential and he wouldn't be nearly where he is today.
All great organizations, all great individuals, all great teams are Believe in what they are doing so much, and they have to.
Because if they didn't, they never would get to where they want to be.
So don't sell yourself short.
Don't say, I'm just A. I just do.
No.
Truly, have some confidence in it.
Own it.
Have some real passion and purpose behind it.
That's what this brand manifesto for me is all about.
Let's burn the boats as we prepare for battle entering 2026.
The entrepreneurial journey is a battle.
There are highs, there are lows, there are hard days and there are easy days.
The truth is that founders and key team members of an organization are behind a business.
Need to see, feel and understand passion and purpose.
Because without it, there is little, potentially no potential.
So we recently as a team, as a leadership team, met and planned out 2026.
And we typically do this After Black Friday.
End of November, going into December, we plan out our key initiatives for the year.
And I want to share our key initiatives with you guys.
We're not going to give too much away, but high level.
There are five key initiatives that I want to share.
And we do this for alignment within the organization.
This is what we're all working towards and working on going into this next year.
So, as the founder and CEO of the business, what I do collectively with the leadership team is we work together to develop these key initiatives.
And then everyone goes and creates strategy and tactics within their department that are aligned with these key initiatives.
And then we all come back together to build out a plan, a strategy, tactics of how we're working together to bring these key initiatives to life.
So the last couple of weeks, we met and we discussed what we want to go after in 2026.
And this is not going to share everything, but it's, like I said, more high level.
So the first key initiative is to bring to life unique brand positioning.
So there's a few components here.
The first is to balance the content, the marketing, the brand positioning of strength and endurance, really leaning back into hybrid training and the hybrid athlete, which I'll get to a little bit more here, in a bit more detail, but really bringing strength back into the brand in a more meaningful way as we entered 2026.
Because much of 2025 was hyper-focused on endurance.
Marathons, ultras, triathlons, the Ironman prep, for example.
And it had great results.
We, in our opinion...
We're able to own more of the endurance market, but as a brand and where we want to be positioned, we are hybrid at our core.
So bringing in endurance and strength back into the brand in a more meaningful way.
Hybrid.
The second component of this first key initiative is balancing the heart and the head.
What do I mean by that?
If I think of heart behind a brand, it's living.
There's a heartbeat to it.
It's alive.
It's got DNA.
It bleeds.
It's aspirational.
There's an attraction to it.
The heart components of BPN are go on more.
There's emotion behind it for the committed.
It is the go on more ultra.
These documentaries, that we produce these films, that we produce the content, that we produce storytelling behind our athletes and our partners.
There's heart there, aspirational elements there.
And then there's a head element to brand and marketing.
When I think of head, I think of product education, formulations, the science, the benefits.
It's more product focused, more educational focused.
So heart being aspirational, head being educational.
We typically lean really heavy into heart the aspirational element of the brand.
Much of that being around, go on more.
But again, our goal going into this next year is to find a balance between the heart and the head.
How do we talk more about products?
How do we showcase our products in a more meaningful way, a more BPN way?
Utilize the creative team and storytelling to highlight the products just as much as we highlight the athletes and the partners.
And the third component of that first key initiative is community and in real life activations.
So there's some brand collaborations that are working right now.
There are some in real life activations that we're working right now.
The Austin Marathon coming up is one of those.
So we are the on course nutrition sponsor of the Austin Half, which is in January.
The Austin Full, which is in February.
We have the Go On More Ultra, which is April 10th at Bear Ranch.
That's an in real life activation.
We are the on-course nutrition sponsor of the Pittsburgh Marathon, which is the beginning of May, which I'm super excited about.
The Pittsburgh Marathon makes sense for us because Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is 45 minutes away from where I went to college, Indiana Pennsylvania, at IUP.
It's essentially right in our backyard of where BPN was born and got started.
So there's a hometown founders story roots narrative there that we want to lean into.
And Pennsylvania is just like where it all started for me.
So doing the Pittsburgh Marathon just makes sense.
And then we'll have some other key community building events and in real life activations in 2026.
But it's also balancing not doing too many, but doing enough.
And when it comes to in real life activations in community building.
I was just talking to the team about this two weeks ago.
A few weeks ago, we were in Nashville, Tennessee.
We did an event with The Exchange, which is a running store in East Nashville super cool running store.
They sell BPN products.
And we did an event with them which was called the shortest day of the year.
Longest run of your life.
And it was at this event. old abandoned airstrip by Shelby Bottoms Park, East Nashville.
I used to do a lot of my running at this park and on this airstrip when we lived there.
The airstrip itself, I believe is like 1.2 mile loop.
And I've done like 22 mile marathon prep workouts on this loop.
It's beautiful there.
And at this event itself, there were 400 people.
So you take an event like that and then you compare it to an event like the Austin or Pittsburgh Marathon where there's say 40,000-ish people.
Very different.
400 people versus 40,000 people.
The way that you show up for the community and you activate those events is very different.
But after coming off of the event in Nashville, one of the things I told the team was was that it was very obvious that the conversations, the connection, the impact that we were able to make and feel at that event in Nashville was much larger than some of these marathons that we sponsor.
It's a fraction of the people, but the impact you can create on a smaller scale, a more intimate scale, in my opinion, can be more meaningful.
So there's a time and place for both.
There's a time and place for small events.
There's a time and place for large events.
As long as they're done intentionally and strategically, they can both be super powerful.
The second key initiative is intentional product development.
One of the products we're launching in March of 2026 is a whey protein isolate grass fed whey protein isolate.
And two flavors, chocolate and vanilla.
Super excited about that one.
We've been working on that product for quite some time now.
And I'll dive into a little bit more detail throughout this episode about why it's taken us so long to bring that product to life and some of the things we learned in that process.
Our strength collection that we're launching in the summer of 2026 is.
This is part of our first key initiative of leaning back into hybrid, fully bringing strength back into the brand in a more meaningful way.
We're launching, or I should say relaunching our strength products in the summer of 2026.
So right now we have pre-workout, it's called Flight.
Flight was our first product we ever developed in 2012.
Since 2012, the formula has changed and evolved.
But Flight has always been like our flagship product, our pre-workout.
We used to have a muscle pump enhancer called EndoPump.
And we have a recovery supplement called Recover, which is branched-chain amino acids, essential amino acids carnitine L-tartrate, tart cherry.
It's an incredible recovery supplement, amino acid supplement.
We're kind of rebranding those three products into what we're calling the Strength Collection.
So our pre-workout, which is now flight, will just be rebranded into pre.
We're actually bringing a pump supplement back which I'm sure a lot of people are excited about, because when we discontinued endopump there were a lot of disappointed people.
A lot of disappointed people.
So we're bringing pump back.
It's just going to be called pump.
It's a different formula.
It's a better formula.
The formula is incredible.
And then our supplement called Recover is getting rebranded to Post.
So we will have Pre, Pump, and Post, and they will be sold separately, but also as a collection.
And this is our strength collection that we are launching slash relaunching in the summer of 2026.
Now one of the reasons that we discontinued EndoPump almost a year ago now maybe it has been a year which you can still get on Amazon.
You can still get Endopump on our Amazon page until it's sold out.
But one of the reasons, main reason we discontinued Endopump is because as we started to move the brand more into a endurance direction, the thought process was that having a pump supplement was a distraction away from the endurance consumer, the endurance market, and made our branding confusing.
Well, as we are refocusing it back on hybrid and we're bringing strength training back into the brand in a more meaningful way, it makes sense to bring pump back.
So we will have pre, pump, and post launching under the Strength Collection in summer of 2026.
And then, within intentional product development, we were still building out our strategy for our RTD, our Ready to Drink.
So as you might know, G1M Sport and G1M Sport Plus have been some of our best-selling products.
Carbohydrates electrolytes, and then, in the plus version carbohydrates electrolytes, caffeine.
No tropics.
And we now offer those in RTDs, like bottled beverages, sold exclusively on Amazon.
So you can get 12 packs of GOM Sport RTDs on Amazon.
You can get 12 packs of GOM Sport Plus on Amazon.
So one of our key initiatives in 2026 is continuing to build out that strategy for expansion on Amazon, but also retail opportunities.
So that's key initiative number two.
Key initiative number three is a VPN podcast network expansion.
This is something that we started in 2025.
So right now under our network, we have my podcast, the Nick Bear podcast.
We have the Consistently Good podcast, which is hosted by Jeff Cunningham.
That's an endurance running focus podcast.
And we want to continue to expand that network going into 2026 and beyond.
So it's bringing you on more podcasts, more hosts that align with BPN's mission purpose, values and content direction, to just keep growing that network.
Key initiative number four is to execute thoughtful and strategic channel strategy.
So this is between, you know, we think about our distribution for BPN.
We have digital, we have retail, and then international.
So we kind of look at distribution in three different buckets.
In terms of digital, we have our website and we have our Amazon storefront.
Right now, our digital sales are about a 50-50 split between our website and Amazon.
Amazon has become a meaningful distribution channel for BPN over these last couple of years, doing just as much volume monthly as our website's doing.
And then when it comes to retail, we want retail to be 10 to 15% of our business.
So part of our strategy going into this next year is to bring on more retailers but more importantly to invest in our current retail partners to grow those relationships.
Some of our retail partners right now, we have HEB, who is a great partner to us.
We move a lot of product in HEB grocery stores.
We have Wegmans, grocery stores, Dick's Sporting Goods, Shields.
We've been investing a lot into the Dick's Sporting Good relationship.
And part of us sponsoring the Pittsburgh Marathon or being the on-course nutrition for the Pittsburgh Marathon, is because Dick's Sporting Good, or DSG, is the main sponsor of the Pittsburgh Marathon.
So our goal is to really build that relationship with Dick's Sporting Goods.
If you have a Dick's Sporting Good around you, check to see if they have BPN products right now.
We're trying to get more products into Dick's Sporting Good.
But if you're wondering where you can buy a BPN product in retail, if you go on our website, scroll to the bottom, There's a store locator link.
You can click on that.
Put in your zip code, your address, and you can find what stores in your area are selling BPN products.
So that's an easy way to figure out who, where, and what is distributing BPN supplements.
So retail, we want to be about 10 to 15% of the business, which we're in that ballpark right now.
And, like I said, the focus is relationship building and velocity product, not necessarily just trying to get into more doors.
And then the third channel strategy is international.
So right now we have a great relationship with iHerb.
You can buy BPN products internationally on iHerb's website.
But we have a focused UK effort as well.
So we will be standing up a UK Shopify store in early 2026.
And for the last two years, we've been really working on this distribution strategy.
So going into different countries, it's much more complicated and complex than you would think.
Because different countries have different regulations of label compliance, of ingredients, of claims.
The supplement industry is really country-by-country, case-specific.
So, in order to really do this right because we know we have a huge audience in demand for BPN products in the UK We spent the last two years preparing for this launch, which we're about to do in a more meaningful way, going into this next year.
Right now you can buy BPN supplements on Amazon UK, but we'll be launching our website so you can buy apparel as well.
But over these last two years we have worked with UK Council.
We have sourced a UK supplement manufacturer.
We have a partner over in the UK who's going to be ready and able to ship and fulfill orders.
So we're bringing all this together.
What's taken the most time, I'd say, is compliance like legal compliance, getting labels vetted and approved, working with our manufacturing partners over in the UK so that we can roll this out in the most meaningful and best way possible.
We don't want to take any shortcuts.
We don't want to rush it.
We wanted to do it right so we can really build the BPN brand in the UK in 2026.
And the fifth key initiative for this next year is to appropriately position the business for scale.
And this has two buckets, in our opinion, people and systems.
So it is what team members need hired, what people do we need to go look for.
Bring on recruiting agencies to help source what people do we need.
Who do we need and what systems need built or implemented for scale.
So those are our five key initiatives.
The first, bring to life unique brand positioning.
Two, intentional product development.
Three, podcast network expansion.
Four, execute a thoughtful and strategic channel strategy.
And five, appropriately positioned business for scale.
You know, when it comes to building and leading a brand, something that you've never or never do arrive at is a complete picture of leadership.
Leadership and leading people, leading teams, leading an organization is an ever evolving changing, challenging role to be in.
It's fun.
It's hard.
It's exciting.
It's challenging.
It's all of the things.
And it's something that I'm, consistently learning and studying to try to improve and get better.
And it will be like that for the rest of my life.
I have a opinion on leadership that I believe that we are all called to lead, in different capacities.
Not everyone is called to be a leader for a large group of people or teams or an organization, but Within our lives, we all have the responsibility to lead, whether that's leading ourself, leading our family, leading our partner, our spouse, leading our children, leading a small organization, leading our community.
We are all called in some capacity, whether small or large, and that does not take away from the individual at all.
We're all called in some capacity to lead.
I've been studying a lot of John Maxwell's leadership books and principles lately.
The book that I'm reading right now, by John Maxwell, is called The Five Levels of Leadership, which I highly recommend.
But John Maxwell says that leadership is influence.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Leadership isn't about your title, but your ability to positively impact others by adding value, building relationships, serving first and developing character.
So in the book The Five Levels of Leadership, as it sounds, there are five levels of leadership that John Maxwell identifies.
And what I find is most interesting about this book also very humbling at the same time is a realization that you, as an individual in a leadership role, the level of leadership that you are on these five levels I'm about to share, as John Maxwell lays out, it is person by person, case in basis.
You might be on a level three or four in terms of leadership with an individual that you've been working with for three four, five years.
But for someone who you just started leading and working with yesterday, you have to start at level one and you have to gain the trust and confidence from that individual over time.
So once you, like I said, you don't ever arrive to the pinnacle or the peak of leadership, because it depends on the people that you are leading.
That's what makes leadership so unique.
It's not always objective.
There is a subjective nature to it because we're dealing with people.
We're dealing with emotions.
We're dealing with individuals, differences in individuals.
So the first position is called position or the first level is called position.
People follow you because they have to.
You're in a leadership role, a leadership position.
The second level you graduate to is called permission.
People follow you because they want to, not just because they have to.
The third level is called production.
People follow because of what you have done for the organization.
You are competent.
You have achieved.
You have succeeded in some way.
The fourth level is people development.
People follow because of what you have done for them.
And then the fifth level is This is the highest level you can achieve, which is called pinnacle.
People follow because of who you are and what you represent.
Now, most leaders don't reach level five, which is pinnacle.
And when you reach level five, as the way John Maxwell describes in this book, this is the one level of leadership, that where, even when someone comes in day one, you are probably a level five to them, based off of what they know about you, what people say about you, your experience.
They follow you because of who you are and what you represent.
It is well known.
You are well known across the organization or maybe even beyond the organization.
The thing about leadership is that when you are in a leadership role, you are held to a higher standard.
I think sometimes people want to be in a leadership role because of the position, the title and potentially the salary or the benefits that come along with that title, that position.
But leadership is so much more than that.
Leadership is influence.
There is responsibility.
If you want to be a leader, you have to be willing and able to accept the fact that you'll be held to a higher standard.
As John Maxwell says, leaders must hold themselves to a higher standard than their followers, because leadership is a trust, not a right, requiring them to lead themselves first.
Act as change agents and build credibility by consistently modeling discipline, integrity and results.
Their actions, even when no one is watching.
Set the cultural bar and demonstrate what's truly valued, proving they can lead others by first leading themselves.
Well,
If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead other people.
That is the bare minimum.
If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead anyone else.
If you lead yourself to failure, you will lead other people to failure.
One of the reasons that I take the the 2026 BPN brand manifesto so serious and that it's more than selling supplements, is We're not storming the beaches of Normandy, but it feels that way.
I have that passion.
I have that purpose behind it.
Again, because I know that that passion and purpose has the ability to raise or limit or lower the potential.
Leadership is setting a standard and holding a standard.
It's to be a role model.
It's to be an example.
It's one of the things I've said this last couple of years.
It's really resonated with people.
Set the standard, hold the standard.
Like the sweatshirt that I'm literally wearing right now.
The front says go on more, but the back says set the standard, hold the standard.
And a lot of people connected and resonated with that, loved it.
But it means much more than I think a lot of people believe.
Setting and holding a standard is not just saying you're going to go run a marathon in 12 weeks and then train for that marathon in 12 weeks.
Setting and holding the standard is not just saying you're going to get a certain job promotion or certain pay raise by the end of the year and then working to accomplish and achieve those things.
Setting the standard and holding the standard is not circumstance or situational related at all.
It is holistic.
It is all encompassing.
The way you do one thing is the way that you do everything.
That's why I say, I believe it means more than most people think.
It's not just being disciplined with their fitness.
It's not just being disciplined with their work.
It's not just being disciplined with their health and their diet.
It is everything.
It is being a role model.
It is being an example.
You can't say that you set a standard and hold a standard and being a stud athlete and be disciplined and putting all the work in.
But in the same time being a piece of crap, husband and father and leader, or just a selfless individual within the community.
If you are great in the way that you act in one thing but not in another, you have no standard.
You are standard-less.
If you say that you set a standard and you hold the standard, you do it in everything that you do, every part of your life.
That's what gets me so jacked up about leading a team and building a business and a brand.
It's because we have the opportunity.
I have the opportunity and the responsibility to set a standard and hold the standard and be a role model, to be an example, even when it's not cool, even when it's not flashy, even when it's not trendy.
There's durability and there's endurance and there's perseverance in that.
And that endurance and that perseverance, that builds character.
So I have three Ds going this next year.
Those Ds are differentiation, disruption, and distribution.
And these three Ds are closely associated with our 2026 BPN key initiatives.
Differentiation, disruption, distribution.
Those three Ds are top of mind for me. going into this next year.
And it guides our vision of what we say yes to, but more importantly, what we say no to.
Some notes on each one of those.
Differentiation.
Differentiation doesn't need to be new, but it does have to be different.
I think a lot of times when people hear differentiation like you have to create some sort of differentiation in a marketplace that Everyone instantly thinks innovation, new novelty.
But I would disagree.
I think it has to be ownable.
It has to be unique.
It has to be authentic to your brand and organization.
And it has to be different.
Apple, for example, didn't launch the first or sell your device, but they did it differently.
To be a pioneer, to be a trailblazer, you don't have to be first, but you have to be unique, authentic and you have to do it better.
You have to be the best.
That's how I view differentiation.
Disruption, disruption is not And we've, we've been disruptive in this way before.
I think, back to the Austin marathon 2024.
We drove our VPN van uh downtown Austin post-shakeout run in this back street, opened the back doors and we were throwing out go bars and go gels and go on more hats everywhere.
And it was chaos.
There were like thousands of people who surrounded our van, our truck, and we handed out thousands of hats.
And that was pure disruption in the most chaotic sense.
But disruption does not have to be chaotic.
It can be, and I believe should be, orderly.
Disruption is not going in and throwing something that explodes and then dispersing everyone in pure chaos.
Disruption is to influence change and or challenge an existing market.
I believe for a brand to be successful, they have to be disruptive and And it has to change or challenge an existing market.
And then the third D, distribution.
It's finding out where our customers are and how we serve them best.
It's retail opportunities.
It's retail opportunities for not just loyal and existing customers, but also acquiring new customers.
It is Amazon, it is UK, and additional international opportunities.
Again viewing these distribution opportunities not just in terms of how do we offer and sell our products to existing customers for convenience of distribution, but also how can we acquire and get in front of new consumers through effective distribution strategy.
Those are the three Ds we're focused on.
Differentiation, disruption, distribution.
So the next thing I want to talk about that one of our great advisors in the business, Chris Hickey, always talks about is test, learn and apply.
He's always telling us to test, learn, and apply.
Okay.
If there's anything I've learned over these last 13 plus years when it comes to building a business and being an entrepreneur, is that growth is not always linear.
And we shouldn't expect it to be.
If you look at a chart in terms of growth and scale in time, that charted graph is not always going to go from bottom left to top right in a linear fashion.
There are peaks, there are valleys, there's highs or lows, just like in a marathon prep build, just like when it comes to gaining or losing weight.
Some days you'll be a little heavier, some days you'll be a little lighter.
But we look at trends over time.
The way that I track business growth and I believe is a healthy way to track it is you look at trends over time.
Over a long period of time.
We should see that correlation between time and growth going from bottom left to top right.
If it goes the opposite direction, that's a failing business.
You don't want that.
But there's going to be higher moments and then lower moments.
And this is because of testing. new strategies, new products, new initiatives.
You learn from those tests and you apply a new strategy based off of what you've learned.
In the military, we would have what were called AARs, after action reviews.
And it was part of our eight step training model.
So after every mission that we would run when we were out in training, We would reconvene post-mission and we'd have an after-action review, an AAR.
We talked about what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, what went right, what went wrong, and then how do we improve to get better?
And how do we correct the things that went wrong so they don't go wrong the next time?
Building a business. is the same way.
We're not running missions necessarily, but we're running strategies and tactics in hopes of getting better and improving.
So we test, we learn from those tests, and then we apply what we've learned.
One of the things that we've learned over this last year or two is that we are meant to be a hybrid brand.
And I say this as humbly as possible.
I don't think that every brand out there can be a hybrid brand, whether they want to or not.
Because for some brands, as much as they want to be a hybrid brand, being a brand that balances strength and endurance, very well, it has to be authentic to them.
They have to believe it, they have to live it, they have to practice it.
They have to connect with their audience and their consumer.
And for BPN.
I believe that we have the responsibility and the opportunity to be the best hybrid brand in the world.
In 2025, we hyper-focused on endurance.
We went all into endurance.
And there was a lot of wins.
There was a lot of growth there.
We took over more of the endurance market.
We launched new endurance products that became very successful.
Some of our best-selling products that we have within the BPN product portfolio.
But we also learned a lot and we're applying some of those learnings going into 2026.
And those learnings were that we are a much better positioned brand.
We do much better when we are speaking to endurance and strength.
And that's what's guiding some of the application of leaning back into being a balanced strength and endurance brand in this next year and for the foreseeable future.
That's one of the reasons we're bringing back the strength collection in the summer of 2026.
And a lot of this thought process was happening while I was actually in Ironman prep.
I was feeling it.
I was missing strength training myself.
I missed seeing it in the brand content.
I could tell within our community and just the engagement with the brand.
There was a Just the raw grittiness feel of strength.
I love the hybrid training lifestyle.
And that last week of Ironman prep.
My last bike workout ever of the prep in HQ before packing up the bike and sending it to Arizona, was When I was on the bike I watched the Pumping Iron documentary from the 1970s, the golden era of bodybuilding.
If you've never watched the Pumping Iron documentary, you got to watch it.
And as I was watching this documentary with all the best bodybuilders at the time, it really confirmed for me that we got to bring strength training back into the brand in a more meaningful way.
It just feels right.
That documentary got me so pumped up, no pun intended, for this next year.
And it's not a hard pivot or a hard shift in terms of brand content and direction.
It's just a reintroduction into what we will be talking about and showcasing, based off of testing, learning and applying.
Building a business, building a brand, being an entrepreneur.
If you go into it with ego and you want to manhandle a situation or control the vision and you ignore the feedback from data, from analytics, from consumer feedback, from just a feel, you're doing yourself, the brand and the consumer a disservice.
Now, one of the things that we don't talk about enough here at BPN is quality.
And the systems we have in place to ensure quality.
And this goes back to Our first key initiative for 2026, bring to life unique brand positioning.
The second component of that, as I mentioned, was heart versus the head.
Heart being aspirational, head being educational.
Now, there's a lot of things we do here at BPN in terms of ingredient sourcing manufacturing, testing that we don't talk about.
But we do it because it's the right thing to do.
And the team and I were talking a few weeks ago about how we can start incorporating more of this information into our brand content, into our marketing content.
Not because we do it because it's meant to sell product.
We do a lot of these things I'm about to talk about because we truly believe it is the right thing to do.
If we're going to create a product, it should be the best product we can create in terms of formula, in terms of efficacy, in terms of application function flavor,
And then we should make sure that it stands up to the most stringent testing and quality programs, so that our consumers are safe and they can trust that what we are selling is going to help them and not hurt them.
So I want to talk a little bit about quality before I dive into some of the things we do for the products that you might not know about.
What is quality?
Quality is table stakes.
Quality is not a competitive advantage or differentiator.
I want to make that clear.
Quality should be expected.
If somebody is using quality as their competitive advantage or differentiator, chances are they don't have a quality product or service.
And this is why we just haven't talked much about quality in the past, because we believe it is table stakes.
It is the bare minimum.
It is expected.
You will not succeed without a quality product or service.
William A. Foster once said that quality is never an accident.
It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution.
Steve Jobs also said, customers don't form their opinions on quality from marketing.
Let me read that one more time.
Customers don't form their opinions on quality for marketing.
They form their opinions on quality from their own experience with the products or the services.
One can spend enormous amounts of money on quality.
One can win every quality award there is.
And yet if the products don't live up to it, customers will not keep that opinion for long in their minds.
So where we have to start is with our products and services, not with our marketing department.
Marketing is important, but products and services, the intentionality behind the formulation and development of those, is much more, much more, a million times more important than the marketing behind them.
Quality is the way we do everything.
It's not just how we talk about what we do.
It's how we actually do it.
So that's what I believe quality is.
Quality is everything.
It's expected.
It's a bare minimum.
So, with one of our components, of our key initiatives being balancing the heart versus the head, I mean it does become challenging in terms of our brand team and our marketing team working closely together to making sure we have the aspirational DNA, heartbeat element of the brand.
But then also let's talk about the educational components of our products and how to use them and what makes them different, and some of the testing and the sourcing that we do.
For example, we don't do these things to promote or market, but because it is the right thing to do.
We are enrolled in the NSF Certified for Sport program.
All of our products are tested for banned prohibited substances by NSF Certified for Sport.
So if you are a professional athlete military, law enforcement, collegiate athlete, you're subject to regular drug testing, or you're an individual who just wants to ensure that their products don't have banned or prohibited substances in them, you can rest assure that all of our products are tested and certified for NSF.
Certified for sport.
They are the only independent third-party certification program recognized by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, USADA.
And we verify that these products do not contain unsafe levels of contaminants, prohibited substances or masking agents.
And what is on the label matches what is in the product.
Now part of being enrolled in the NSF Certified for Sport program, we also have to be, and are, enrolled in the NSF 229 certification.
So this certification verifies that the product's label or nutritional panel on the backside of the product accurately reflects the ingredients listed, such as vitamins, minerals and botanical extracts.
And the product is free from harmful contaminants like heavy metals, pathogens, and mycotoxins.
We spend a lot of money every year through some of these testing certification programs.
And we do it because it's the right thing to do.
So all of our supplements are NSF certified for sport.
That's the first thing I want to talk about that we do.
And these are just the third party testing certifications we do.
And this is outside of the due diligence and the time we spend on raw material sourcing and testing manufacturing sourcing testing, relationship building our supply chain team.
There's a lot that goes in behind the scenes of bringing these products to life, and not just research and development, but ensuring they are safe, they are effective, they are of the highest quality that we can offer.
We recently enrolled in a new program with this organization called Light Labs.
So if you go on to any of our product pages under the buy box which is like the first half of the page as you're scrolling down, you'll see under the how to use ingredients and nutritional facts dropdowns there's a little rectangular box that says Light Labs.
You can click on that and it's this interactive panel.
They call it the product insight panel.
And you can click on that and you can see when our products have been tested last by Light Labs.
Light Labs is a testing lab and software platform designed to give brands and customers clear, reliable and actionable insights into the product purity and nutritional integrity.
So if you click on this little rectangular Light Labs box on each one of our product pages, it'll open up and it highlights the active ingredients per product transparently, helping you, as a customer, easily trust and validate our product claims.
So, for example, if you go on the GNM Sport Plus product page and you click on the Light Labs box, it'll open up this product insight panel, the PIP.
And you'll see the recent test results for vitamins in those products or in that product heavy metal testing allergens, caffeine content and microbial testing.
So we're now sharing all these test results with you guys on our product pages within Light Labs.
This is something we've recently brought on and integrated into our website, which is super cool and just shows some of the testing that we're already doing, but sharing it with you now to be more transparent.
Something in the last couple of years we've done which has been extremely important for the brand is we have brought quality in-house.
So we have a quality department in-house and that's led by our director of quality.
His name's Nick Dowling.
He actually previously worked at one of our manufacturing facilities and with some of our manufacturers we've been working with them for the last eight plus years.
We have great relationships with some of these manufacturers and We have a few different manufacturers across the US, based off of different products and what products those manufacturers specialize in.
But we brought on Nick Dowling a few years ago.
He leads our quality program.
He's the one who oversees our in-house testing and quality, our manufacturing program, testing and compliance program, our integration with NSF and light labs.
So overseas all the testing and a cool initiative that he recently pursued and achieved is that we have a lab in house, actually here at BPN HQ.
And we got that lab certified.
So it's ISO certified.
ISO 17025 certified.
So not many brands have a ISO 17025 certified lab within their HQ.
So we can do testing ourselves to confirm certain lab results.
But the ISO 17025 certified lab means that a testing laboratory meets international standards for competence and consistent operation, providing they produce valid, reliable results and are accepted globally.
This is the gold standard for labs wanting to show their technical capability and quality management.
So we do this in-house now.
We have this ability in-house.
Nick Dowling has done a great job leading that initiative, and But that is just some of the due diligence and some of the systems that we have incorporated into our quality program to ensure that the products you are using and consuming are safe, effective and reliable through multiple testing programs and due diligence.
Now, I have a little story that I want to share.
As I previously mentioned, our second key initiative for 2026 is intentional product development.
I mentioned the strength collection.
I mentioned the intentional strategy behind the RTD on Amazon and retail.
And then whey protein isolate.
Now we are launching our whey protein isolate, as I mentioned, March of 2026.
What makes whey protein isolate different from our current whey protein that we offer?
We currently offer whey protein concentrate.
Whey protein isolate has lactose removed, which means that if you struggle digesting lactose, whey protein concentrate or lactose if you have a lactose intolerance, most people who have a lactose intolerance can digest whey protein isolate.
So if whey protein concentrate makes you gassy bloated, gives you like the protein farts, to be honest, you might be better suited for whey protein isolate.
We know a lot of people through some of our surveys on our website and research.
There are people who don't buy our protein because we offer a concentrate.
They can't digest lactose well and they're looking for an isolate.
So this is one of the reasons that we are launching an isolate in March of 2026.
Two flavors initially, vanilla and chocolate.
Now, when we started the research, the research and development for this product, through our surveys and from consumer feedback, we found that a lot of people wanted a grass-fed whey protein isolate.
So we decided... that if we're going to launch an isolate, we're going to launch a grass-fed option.
And we learned a lot through this process.
Now there's a lot of brands online who are selling a whey protein isolate that is branded on the bottle on the label, as 100 grass-fed whey protein isolate.
So we went to our manufacturer partners and they connected us with the best whey protein suppliers in the world.
And we had the conversation, we asked them all the questions around a hundred percent grass-fed whey protein isolate.
And from the best protein suppliers in the world.
They told us that a 100 grass-fed whey protein isolate does not exist.
So we started asking questions, because there's a lot of brands, there's a lot of products on the market that sell and offer a 100 grass-fed whey protein isolate.
So we asked more questions.
And through our due diligence and through our research, we found that there is a lot of false claims in the industry, in the market, around grass-fed whey protein, specifically grass-fed whey protein isolates.
So the solution that we came to and the best option is a 95% grass-fed whey protein isolate.
That is what we were launching in March of 2026.
And this protein supplier that we came across and have built a relationship with.
They are under a certification called the truly grass-fed certification that verifies, and is certified, that 95 of The protein being supplied is grass-fed.
And this comes with a few different standards.
So the protein, like I said, that we will be offering is truly grass-fed certified whey protein isolate 95 grass-fed, because 100 grass-fed apparently does not exist in.
So there are some more questions to ask for the brands that are marketing a 100 grass-fed whey protein isolate.
To meet this certification program, the cow's diet must be predominantly minimum 95 from forage consisting of grass hay haylage baleage, silage and crop residue.
In addition, a small amount maximum of 5 of concentrate feed, including mineral and vitamin supplements, may be fed to animals.
For the purpose of maintaining animal health, Milk samples must be taken at the farm when the milk is transferred to a milk tanker and tested and verified to be antibiotic-free at the plant before being used.
And cows must not be given RBST or any other growth hormone, artificial or otherwise, at any time in their lifetime.
And the milk supplier must abide by the Glambia open source dairy code of practice to ensure high standards of milk production, farm management and animal welfare are maintained at all times.
I share this to say, the way you do one thing is the way that you do everything.
And there is a responsibility to set a standard and hold a standard.
We could have done what a lot of other brands do in the market.
And that is to stamp on the front of our label, 100% grass-fed whey protein isolate.
But it's not the right thing to do because it's not the truth and it's deceptive marketing.
The best that we could source, The best that we could find in the world, is a 95 grass-fed whey protein isolate that is certified under the Truly Grass-Fed program.
That is what we will be launching in March of 2026.
Those are the standards that we have set for ourselves.
That is how we conduct our business.
That is how we practice nutrition. trust and credibility and transparency.
And we will be rolling out this product and these products going this next year.
This is just some of the stuff that I wanted to share as we're wrapping up 2025 and we're preparing to go into 2026, that we work on regularly as a brand, as a business that is typically behind the scenes, but that we want to start sharing and showcasing, because this is where so much of my passion is.
It lies.
It exists.
I love building brand.
I love building products and especially good products that are tested, that can be trusted, that are quality.
So I appreciate you guys so much.
Thank you for supporting BPN and myself over these last 13 plus years.
But I'm really excited for this next year.
I'm really excited for the future.
So as always, go on more.
