Brian Underwood on Prüvit’s Acquisition by Herbalife, the Future of Wellness, and Building an Iconic Brand

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down Brian Underwood on Prove It's acquisition by Herbalife, the future of wellness and building an iconic brand. And today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about the biggest challenges when you scale a company. We'll talk about lessons learned during acquisitions, about keeping your company culture, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring this episode goes to Brian and our sponsors. Is now the time to grow a successful business?

0:37Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Brian, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hello, Fire Nation. It is great to be on the call. You know, something that I think about being successful that most people might disagree with is after you become successful in any way that you define it, that life becomes easier.

1:22And I'm a big believer that I think the more success you have, usually you grow through that. It means that you can carry more weight. So there's more opportunities or problems to solve. Problems don't go away. I think that but I think that success actually peels back the onion on who you are as an individual and it gives you a lot of opportunity to grow as a person, not just financially or a company. So I believe that probably the most successful people in the world learn more about themselves through the journey of success than anything else. Well, Brian, we're going to peel back your onion because you went from a single idea to building a company that did$2.2 billion in sales.

2:08What advice would you give my listeners who have dreams of launching a business like this? I would say, you know, don't underestimate the power that you have, you know, the power of thought and just to take massive action. You know, when we launched Prove It, it was a concept and an idea of commercializing something that most people said no to. And that was BHB or ketone technology. Now, one thing that I've recognized is that growing and scaling can be very difficult. I mean, this is often where a lot of entrepreneurs either fail or they just kind of like say, you know what, that wasn't the right path for me.

2:50I'm going to kind of go back to being small and quaint and just kind of do my little thing over here. What were the biggest challenges that you faced when you were scaling Prove It to the level that it is now? I mean, there was personal challenges. There was business challenges. We got met with our first challenge within 30 days of us, you know, launching our D2C model. we got 19 ,000 orders back ordered in the first 30 days. And, you know, I believe though, if you stay resourceful, if you stay looking at the positive that, that there's always resources that can come to your aid. And I think most, most companies that would have, that would have killed them.

3:32Fortunately, we have great partners and great relationships. You know, that was the very first opportunity we had to see how resilient we were. And we were able to catch up within, I would say, 65 days, which is unheard of. Then the second challenge that we had was right on the tail end of that. We had someone try to circumvent our license to sell ketones. And we found ourselves in federal court, you know, because we proved that the concept would work. And then they wanted to take it to a quote unquote, bigger fish. And since then, it's been one opportunity after another in scaling. But I think that maintaining efficiency, you know, growing anyway, not trying to solve everything and be perfect, I think is, you know, don't mess good up for perfect has always been our slogan.

4:30And then focus on the business that we're in. And really, the business that we're becoming simultaneously gives us the ability to innovate as we're moving forward has kind of been our philosophy. Now, you did also mention that there might have been some personal challenges in there. Can you pick out one of those that you think would resonate most with an entrepreneurial audience? I mean, one of the personal challenges was just imposter syndrome. You know, being a CEO, starting it from scratch, and then all of a sudden becoming, you know, multi-million dollar, you know, revenue company doing over a hundred million dollars in revenue within our first three years.

5:10It had me questioning, am I ready to carry this weight? You know, do I have what it takes? You know, I would say that would be one of the very first personal challenges that I had to work through, you know, leading into other personal challenges with, you know, with divorce, maintaining, being a father, you know, through that and operating the company. All of those go into, you know, I really believe that it's made me a better person. Now, a lot of entrepreneurs, they just have this dream of building this business that, of course adds value to the world, does amazing things. And then one day maybe they exit, they sell or they get acquired and they kind of have this vision of what that looks like.

5:55You know, this big check being handed to them. They ride off into the sunset on their, you know, stallion, or maybe they're cruising off on their perfect yacht in the Caribbean or whatever that might look like in their minds. Of course, things are really different in reality, but you got to experienced something similar when Herbalife acquired Prove It. So talk about that a little bit and let us know, was Herbalife the right company to acquire Prove It? Yeah, I think Herbalife was the perfect fit. And it wasn't something that we were seeking out. We weren't looking to sell. You know, I think our goal has always been how far can we take the ketone conversation around the world as it's still in its infancy.

6:35You know, so our goal is like to across the chasm, right? How do we get it from, you know, from a bleeding edge technology to early adopters into mainstream, the mainstream audience. And, you know, I tell this, I've told this quite a few times in the last several weeks is I had a good friend of mine, Eitan Alvaz, who started a company called Applied Semantics, and he ended up selling it to Google. It's what we know today is Google AdWords. And I asked him, I said, Eitan, why did you sell to Google? And he said, well, you know what? We took it as far as we could take it. And in order to go to another level, we needed more resources.

7:20And so when you take a look at Herbalife and what they've been able to accomplish, you know, in over 107 countries,$44 billion market cap, I think, ballpark, multi-billions of dollars a year in true, you know, resources with the seed of what prove it, how prove it was started with people being the most important driver behind it by really embracing entrepreneurship. You know, it gave us an opportunity not to sell out, to run off in the sunset. I do think some people do exit from that perspective, But for us, it was to get a bigger boat, to leverage the distribution power for more growth and more innovation.

8:07You know, I compare it to like Pepsi and Celsius. You know, Pepsi acquired Celsius for whatever,$550 million or close to a billion dollars in 2022. But what Pepsi allowed Celsius to do is piggyback on their global distribution. they helped them you know increase into a billion dollar brand and you know kind of expanded its portfolio and so you know and I think there's perfect timing with Herbalife Herbalife has not acquired a company in 45 years and I think that we're in this really unique position in the marketplace today is a brand new kind of era is going into health and wellness and you know you talk about, we were kind of on the front end of this whole conversation called biohacking, you know, where all of the thought leaders are looking on how they can, you know, live better, live longer, and have a greater health span.

9:07And I think it was a time where also Herbalife was looking on how they could innovate. And so I think our innovation and us being kind of a leader in that space was a great marriage for them as well. Now, you had a very clear direction with Prove It when you first started. And of course, there's been adjustments and pivots over time, as there is with every single company. But what is going to change with Prove It going forward? Will the direction change? Will any products change? What are you foreseeing, if anything? The first thing is nothing is going to change. Herbalife is going to allow us to operate independently while we start integrating into new initiatives together, like personalized wellness.

9:53It's very similar to when like Microsoft acquired LinkedIn is Microsoft allowed LinkedIn to operate independently, but they were also able to integrate using some of the same business tools, AI, and having a cultural impact. You know, prove it's not going to go out and sell Herbalife products, for instance. However, we're going to be able to utilize some of the resources from Herbalife for some of maybe possibly the international expansion and approval of BHB and ketones. And so from a cultural shift, I don't think that there's going to be much and day-to-day business operations, we're going to be operating independently while we're integrating.

10:41Now, in the future, we're going to have some joint initiatives or methods of operation to where both Prove It and Herbalife distributors will be able to participate together. Fire Nation, really powerful when you start on a journey. You have a mission. You're driving towards that mission. You accomplish that mission on so many levels. I mean,$2.2 billion in sales. And then you get acquired. And guess what? You get to keep doing the thing that you were doing. And now maybe even on a bigger and better level because the resources are even bigger than you started. So there's a lot more we're going to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

11:26Is this your year to grow a successful business? Are you looking to learn the proven processes and success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories? See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month to month and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Schedule your free personal 13-point assessment with Clay Clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire.

12:06Because Clay only takes on 160 clients and only allows 300 attendees to each business conference, you will interact with Clay directly. See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshop featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at Clay Clark's next business conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. All right, Brian, we're back.

12:42And we talked about this acquisition a little bit, but I really want some takeaways. I mean, you probably did a lot of things, right? I mean, you were acquired. You might have done some things wrong, or maybe you would do them differently had you had the chance to do them over again. Were there any lessons you learned from this acquisition? There's been a lot of lessons along the way. You know, I think one of the biggest lessons as COVID came was the need for innovation in new markets, like to create stimulation because of I think people's attention span is very short today because of social media noise.

13:23So I think that, you know, one of the lessons as we came out of COVID was the world became different. And so to innovate faster, I think was something that we could have done. I think in terms of lessons with the acquisition, it happened so fast. I mean, it was really, you know, the story's pretty phenomenal because we weren't looking to be acquired. They weren't necessarily looking for someone to acquire. It became relationship-based. You know, my president, our president, Blake Mallon, was able to meet their upcoming CEO at a direct sales event. And they just forged a great relationship. And we shared a lot of aligned vision.

14:16And we said, what if this could happen? Like, how could this benefit, you know, both companies? And do we align culturally? and so you know I think a great lesson there is just the power of showing up the power of being present the power of being open you got to be open and you got to you also have to you know put yourself in proximity to meet new people and powerful people and so one of the things that's really cool is Blake is now going to be going in as part of this initiative as being a C-level executive with Herbalife to help drive some of the new initiatives we were working on independently from Herbalife that Herbalife wants to adopt.

15:00So we're able to kind of keep the same heartbeat, the same culture, and the same way of integrating or if you want to say that the corporate expectations. So that was really cool. So I think that's a really big learning lesson for any entrepreneur is the power of proximity, the power of staying open, and really the power of vision. Now, one thing that you were able to do really well, especially at the beginning, was build a company culture. I mean, you were a small team, you guys were trying to figure things out, the company culture was there, it was gritty, it was fun, but you were able to maintain that on a lot of levels, even through massive growth.

15:44So talk about that, and how have you tried to continue to maintain that culture even after this acquisition or what are your hopes there? You know, I think that our hopes are, um, our, our culture has always been great because we've been very, uh, a heart-based, um, leadership, uh, first company corporately and externally in the field. Um, it doesn't mean it's perfect. You know, I think that, we've always taken from a cultural perspective is that we're not going to be perfect. We are going to push the envelope and we want to be a speedboat in the water. We want to move very nimble because once you start getting bigger, you become kind of this barge and it's hard to turn the ship and as fast as business shifts today, you have to remain nimble.

16:39So one of the things that I'm hoping and one of the things that's in this acquisition is, you know, Herbalife is also acquiring and partnering with some of our infrastructure that we've developed to be able to be nimble as we go through innovation and piggybacking on their massive infrastructure. So that's something that we hope to maintain is the speed of innovation, you know, and there has been. You're right, John. We've, you know, because we're not afraid to innovate, we've done some things and it's fell flat, you know, I mean, but then what do you do? You don't keep, you keep trying, you don't stop.

17:22And just fortunately, you know, we've had a core base that we've continued to build on. And, you know, we, and you always experience some of the churn and some of the burning down the building effect as you get big, no matter who you are, you asked me the question earlier about success, the more successful you are, the more you're going to see the psychology of resistance, you know, and we, I think we've been very resilient in that. And so that's one of the things that I know Herbalife has seen for over 45 years. And so I think that that partnership and that alignment is very, very crucial and very important to us to maintain.

18:03Now, again, you've accomplished something that so many entrepreneurs dream of. What's next? I think next is doubling down. I mean, for me, it's a new energy, a new spirit, a new, if you want to say ceiling, I know that you've always heard of law of the lid, right? Is our lid just got so much bigger. And so it's really, you know, internally tapped into, I think a lot of times when you become successful, you know, you do$2.2 billion in revenue and in a nine year period, when you started it really from scratch, you know, out of your home office, is sometimes there can be a level of complacency that sets in.

18:46And so, I think with this partnership, what it's done for me is given a bigger vision of how to tap into more of my personal potential, as well as more of the potential of really the impact that we can make, you know, coming together and being a part of a bigger system. So what's next, I think, is double down on the power of ketones, getting that message out in BHB, and really the new era of what we think health and wellness is going to, and that is, you know, personalized wellness. So, you know, for me, it's, it's laser focused to see, see how far we can take it. My audience are entrepreneurs, they're small business owners, solopreneurs at different stages of their journey.

19:33What would your advice be to somebody who's just starting out? You know, another way to think about this is like, what's one piece of advice you wish that you had when you first started prove it? You know, I was very fortunate. I had some really good mentors and prove it was started out of a series of, I hate to use the word failures, but prove it was started out of a series of stepping stones, right? We wouldn't be here without some of those personal challenges and opportunities I had in the past. And, you know, I think that I would tell them a couple of things. The only thing that can stop you is you.

20:12And once you start having that level of success, don't underestimate the power of collaboration, but don't underestimate the power that you have. Don't ever, you know, fall victim to the imposter syndrome, so to speak. And then once you start having success, you know, there's a lot of people that you can surround yourself with. You mentioned solopreneurs. I think that it's so interesting that we're going to see probably a solopreneur become a billionaire in the next decade, right? Maybe in the next five years. But I think that you're only as good as your team. you know and so I would say this that usually what defeats you is within it's not the outside competition it's it's who you surround yourself with or the voices in your own head and so I would just say very strong on that and say very strong on your vision and mission and know that every adversity is there on purpose and there's some solution that's a greater solution if you're experiencing that adversity and every entrepreneur has it, no matter who it is, you know, you're going to have some challenges and embrace those challenges, embrace those plateaus and, and keep moving forward.

21:24There's always going to be a bigger opportunity as you move forward. Brian, take the stage, take the microphone, end this on a high note. What do you want to share with Fire Nation. It can be about anything, about, you know, what you're excited about, what advice you might have. I mean, you just gave some great advice, but what do you really want us, the listeners, to know? Is realize that people sometimes fear what they don't understand. And, you know, for anyone that is in the process of, number one, being an entrepreneur, keep charging forward because there's going to be a lot of people around you that don't understand it.

22:02As an entrepreneur, or once you have success, there's going to be a lot of people that don't understand the decisions that you make moving forward as you're guiding your company or your love, you know, no different than prove it. And really, when it comes to this acquisition, I found myself in the last two weeks getting a lot of congratulations and as well as getting a lot of people, you know, asking, oh, are you okay? What's going on? And I believe that's just, you know, understanding that people fear what they don't understand. The reality of it is, is that, you know, dreams come true and dreams can always be bigger than you've ever imagined.

22:39If you keep faith and faith is being certain of what you hope for. And I believe that people have faith in those that have faith in other people. And that's something that has stayed tried and true to not only myself, my business partners. And John, I can tell you, if someone's listening in, if you would have told me 10 years ago, Brian, you're going to start something that nobody else wants to do. You're going to commercialize something, do 2 billion in sales, be surrounded by some of the biggest thought leaders in health and wellness that are speaking on your stages because they're passionate about what you're a megaphone for.

23:13And then you're going to have the biggest company in your industry, you know, a multi-billion dollar a year company, 45 years, it's never acquired a company. They're going to come and say, we want your team. We want your innovation. We want your vision. We see how you see what isn't as if it were, and we believe we can be better together. I mean, that's a dream come true. That's the greatest compliment that I could have ever received as an entrepreneur. And I know someone's listening out there that's in the process right now of getting started, or they're in the middle of their journey. And what I would tell them is, you know, dream big and be bold and mighty forces when you come to your aid.

23:54It's not always easy, but it's always worth it. And, you know, I know that it's cliche, John, but it is about the journey. It's about who you become in the process and what you're able to give back to the world and to other people. And I'm very excited right now about, you know, not only the team and who we've become, but who I've become personally and what we're able to give back moving forward in the world. Because we have a different perspective and we have a bigger lid and we have a bigger vision. And so if you're on this call, I would tell you, stay positive, stay confident in what you're doing.

24:31Eliminate distractions, eliminate the naysayers and the haters, because they will come out of the woodwork the minute that you start achieving or having what they don't. And remember that the only real competition you have is the internal one within yourself. And so stay on fire, man. Stay on fire. What a way to end. And Fire Nation, you know that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with BU and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Brian in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up.

25:09And Brian, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Awesome. I appreciate it. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Brian for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who is looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. Visit eofire.com slash guest. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Is now the time to grow a successful business? Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire.

25:55Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire.