E083 - $100M/Entrepreneur's Framework to Scale Your Business (copy & paste) | Maxx Chewning

41:21Like I needed it to be beyond me. So that was like always the plan was to create it with no ties to me. And what's really interesting about that is, you know, you'll, I'll watch a lot of these like podcasts or a lot of these YouTubers that will do these videos and you can search all of these, like search, uh, you know, reviewing influencers products. And you can find these big people that'll make these reviews of like all these influencer brands products. None of them talk about sour strips because I think none of them know that sour strips, because I'm like the smallest creator that has this brand.

41:57And I don't think people know about it because I'll watch all these videos and they'll review 15 influencer products, all these drinks and foods and all these things. But I'm like, I know Sour Strips is like more popular of a product than a lot of these, but they don't have it because they have no idea who I am. Like I'm not big enough of an influencer or I'm not tied to it enough. So it was like, I was always like a little upset that I wasn't included on these things, but I think it was actually better because then it's, it's like its own brand. Right. so how did you go about scaling it i think this is quite interesting for me how you go and just keep going up and up and up and up snowball man like reinvesting is even with with ever forward and sour strips like i always took the because i was able to make enough money from social media i could just reinvest all the money i almost treated the bank accounts of the businesses like i can't touch that yeah like if i really get into a pinch i could but like i don't that money is that's not my money.

42:54It's the business's money. I can't touch it. I just want to reinvest it. So it just, you know, 20 ,000 bags turned into, you know, after a couple of launches, it's like, okay, let's launch 30 ,000 bags and 50 ,000 bags and a hundred thousand bags. And, you know, and then we just, and again, I'm also documenting scaling this company. So you can go back and watch from the day I launched it to now, and you can see every step that I've done, or at least most of them. But I was, oh, we need, now we need a warehouse space because in a room smaller than this was where I stored the first couple pallets of candy.

43:27Um, and I was like, okay, we need to scale it beyond this. So then I rented a thousand square feet in the back of Christian's warehouse that was climate controlled. And then in that warehouse, I was like, okay, let's, you know, I had no idea how to, how do you ship candy efficiently, effectively? How do you get into stores? And it was just snowball. And you're, cause you're, you're doing all yourself this time. Yeah. I mean, I had a small, the same people that you met like that work with me are the same people that they started packing candy and now they're like helping run the company yeah you know they started just hey i need people instagram like i need people to help pack orders for this candy brand i launched hey we'll help flash forward now they're like you know so they're learning with you yeah now they're like essentially c-level executives in the in the brand of you know from starting with no knowledge of anything and now they've they've learned and they've scaled with me they've stuck with me um how do you how do you look after them do you give them equity or you just uh i i i haven't like said it super publicly but when i sold the company i took care of everyone um so yeah i mean the people that stuck with me since day one like they're happy with the outcome like for sure um so we basically just sold a lot online and then covet happened which you know we didn't know that was going to happen and that just made our online sales go through the roof right so we started just really just accumulating a ton of cash because we're making the most amount of margin right um because they're selling direct customers online just because people people wanted their candy fix but they couldn't go to the store yeah they're just stuck at home and i mean online sales in general during covid just boomed like everyone's ordering maybe not clothing as much but it did a little bit but any just stuff that people can't go to the stores and get they're like let me order it um because our sales went through the roof like just during COVID.

45:17And then our popularity is also going, you know, sky high at that time, because everyone's on TikTok and, you know, social media. So the brand's growing a lot. And then right when COVID started, you know, not being as much of a worldwide issue and people started going out, stores are trying to get people back into stores, right? You know, foot traffic, foot traffic back into stores. So we started getting approached by these big retailers, target walmart heb they're approaching you actually yeah every every store i'm trying to think i don't want to falsely say it how do they know because i would assume they don't know the numbers yeah i'd say like 99 of stores that we are in um have approached us so like i don't have a i'm the sales team like i'm i don't have a sales team why do you think that is huh why do you think that is because we got really popular online and you know every store has a how can they know that you're popular online because every store like a big retail chain let's say target for example every category there's a category buyer so there's like a buyer just for candy right and then there's even seasonal candy buyers that just does the you know valentine's day christmas right they may have some overlap but for the most part there's like the candy buyer and then there could be even even in like walmart's case there's just the front of the store candy buyer they don't even touch the back of the store so there's like people and what they're i mean their job is to like boost their category as much as possible so they want the most amount of whatever the they don't care who the brand is like yeah they're gonna have all the big names but they're looking for that like next big name right the next big brand because then they'll look really good for bringing that in um so are you familiar with uh smart sweets so smart sweets is a candy company created by this girl named tara bosch out of canada um she exited for like 300 million dollars or something like they got a sold but they're like a better for you candy right it's like a lower sugar kind of they were like they were like the she was like the first to do it that's why she became like the most popular now there's a lot of brands kind of following in her you know footsteps but the candy buyer at target found her brought her in and it boomed right so the candy buyers are like oh i want the next this brand like and and you know they they're looking online they're they're seeing trends so they don't see either the engagement on the social media page or other yeah they're just like posting about it yeah their job is to find like what is the next whether it be the next brand you know the next whatever like this that's how they get in the store so um i don't know the exact strategy of how like she found us but i would say it's probably from you know just tiktoks online someone that she knows that's maybe a younger person sends it to her who's like related to her oh look at this candy brand um and you just see how popular it is you see the probably the instagram and everything was the the data she saw like oh it was candy brand looks they're selling out all the time it looks really cool it's something new straight out so how do you protect yourself from not getting screwed over and taken advantage of by these big corporations and retailers because they probably look at you and be like okay this guy doesn't know any like he's never put his candy in stores before so we can put together a present a deal where you don't benefit as much as we do i don't i don't really think they they was it not like that because i I don't know how this is.

48:45I don't really think they do that. I mean, so retail, when you create a consumer package good, a CPG product, right? A beverage, a snack, a food, something kind of consumable, like something that people buy. And you get into stores, like it's a really expensive process. And a lot of people have to take investments to go into these stores because there's things called like slotting fees. basically the store could be like hey my guy you know i would love to bring your swim trunks into target right but and we want to bring you into all the targets but for your but you have to pay to be in our store like you'll make a bunch of money but you need to pay uh for each skew so for each color for example let's say we want to bring three of your top swim shorts in there right Red, crimson, and ruby.

49:35So they'll be like, okay, for these three, we have to charge you$30 per item. So$90 for one for each SKU, right? Not if I each quantity, but that's$90. It's a one-time fee, okay? $90, but we want to bring you into 2 ,000 stores. So it's$90 times 2000 stores, right? And then we're going to give you that PO three months ahead of time before, like it goes into the store. So you need to pay for all that inventory. And then you need to pay for all the inventory, get ready. Okay, here's the PO, ship it to us. And then we have payment terms. So it's going to be, we're not going to pay you until 60 to 90 days after we get it.

50:23and we're going to take out that fee, that 90 times 2000, right? So that fee is taken out after it's sold. It's not after it's sold, but it's like you don't get paid for like 60 days, but they're going to take it out of that payment. Okay. So you're going to get paid 60 days and you're going to get that fee. So you're having to front all that. And then assuming it's a really well selling short, during that 60 to 90 days before you get paid, let's say it starts selling like hotcakes, right? they're ordering even more product from you so now you got to buy more product for all that inventory so you're just having to front load all this money and the money is coming eventually assuming you sell well scary though but it's like you have to front so much cash so a lot of brands get like screwed because they don't have the cash to support it like so that's why they've taken investments but with us we became so popular online and i was and i got so much money from online sales that I could support the business.

51:19So I never took any investments. Put it aside. Yeah. But like, but what's crazy for me to really understand that is like when we got into Target, it costs so much money and I had to wait so long to get that money back. And you have to buy so much product ahead of time that like the bank account got down to like almost flat. Like I knew the money was coming. So it's kind of like first world problems, but you have to like float the business for that's stressful yeah so they're not really trying to screw you it's just like you have to pay to get in there um and then once you're in there you have to sell really well to stay in there and then depending on the store they could one thing they could do to maybe screw you is they could say hey we're gonna take a chance on your swim trunks coming into the store and you're like i know they'll crush it they're like okay but if it doesn't crush it you have to buy back the inventory you're like you know so that's like the risk you're like okay i think i'd crush it but if they don't i have to buy all of it back like so it's uh there's a lot of like levels to it but luckily in the candy space it's probably the more straightforward but uh just getting into stores like you have to do it to scale but it's very expensive yeah very expensive yeah i imagine that's why a lot of startups probably just don't even get well well it's it's that's why everyone takes venture capital everyone's like you know we raised 10 million dollars we raised you know 5 million dollars 20 million dollars because they have to because they can't afford to get into stores yeah because the stores aren't you can negotiate a little bit you can be like so yeah so they kind of they fast track that process but then they have to give away equity business so then you're basically when you start giving away a bunch of equity it's great that you're raising money it's great that you're scaling so fast but the more and more equity you give away you're basically you have less control not only less control but you're also you're you're basically planning for an exit you're hoping because an exit's not guaranteed like you say you selling the company's not guaranteed so you either need to make so much money in the business like so much cash that you can pay back the investors maybe you could buy back your equity or something or you're waiting for this giant exit that then you can get your big payday but to scale but until that day comes that a company wants to buy you, if ever, um, you might need to scale.

53:34Let's say it takes 10 years, right? And you're scaling and scaling and scaling into scaling more. You need more money and you more money and you start, you start like you and you end up only owning 10 % of your company. Now you need to sell your company for a billion dollars for it even to be almost worth your time. So now for the past 10 years, again, it's no small potatoes, but you know, you sold for a billion dollars but you as the founder and owner of the company you only get it could be you know 50 million 100 million but you sold for a billion but you get such a little so it's it's this but you also could never get acquired so that's why ideally don't take on debt keep as much of the company as possible but you're basically just playing this game of can i afford to keep scaling the company and did you keep 100 yeah nice yeah did you did you ever plan for an exit or you just no enjoy the process no i uh even i there was times when i thought i was gonna need money like i was like and if i ever needed i had some cash on my own that like okay i could float it a little bit but if i ever needed like a million dollars or more i didn't have that kind of money to just deploy into the business so at that point i was like oh i'll just ask one of my rich friends of, you know, I'll pay you back with interest.

54:48I take a loan before I try to give away equity. But no, I never, when I started the candy brand, like that was the number one question I got asked was like, would you ever sell it? Would you ever sell it? And I never even had to think of that question. Cause I was like, what do you mean? Like I just started the brand. Like, what do you mean? Am I going to sell it? So I, I guess it was always in the back of my head that it was a possibility because at the end of the day, when we start selling really well in a store, right. And you're let's say i'm keep using target for example when you go into target and there's like this candy aisle right and let's say there's 50 bags of candy 100 doesn't matter and then they're like okay we'll take two of your products okay two bags that were there are no longer there what brand are you taking shelf space from and when they're like oh we love your brand now like now we have like 10 items in target for example like there were 10 things there were things that were there that are no longer there so you start basically like you start stealing shelf space from other brands yeah and so these other brands are like seeing the data they're like oh like because they're getting the notice like hey you're losing this shelf space because we're bringing in something else so it's kind of one of those things like you start i don't say pissing off but you start getting attention from these bigger brands because you're you're you're you're encroaching into their space but a lot of these big brands like they want this type of thing because basically what you're doing is you're doing all of the risk and marketing yourself to see if the candy world wants this brand, right?

56:21Because if they do it, if they try to launch a new brand completely and do it, they have to spend so much money because they're going to go the big corporate route versus, hey, let's just see if this guy can build this business like crazy. And oh, turns out like he's scaling and scaling and year after year and then the people want it like, okay, maybe it makes sense, it would be more advantageous for our company to buy that company and continue its popularity and scale it even more because we can drive down the costs because we have so many resources because we're such a big company. Like, okay, it's already grown so fast.

56:53We can buy it. We can scale it even faster because if I'm in 30 ,000 stores right now, but there's 300 ,000 stores that could go in and their products are already in all those stores, like okay we know how to get it into those stores we know it's going to continue to scale we can make it we can either make it for cheaper or make all the the things that put it together cheaper cheaper boxes cheaper labor whatever it is because they're such a big company they can lower the costs and scale it up so it's almost like a like the runway is clear for a lot of these big brands but it's not guaranteed so i didn't plan on selling it it was just kind of like a random thing that happened and then what so they hershey's reach out yeah they um hershey's in america one of the biggest it is yeah it's you know one of the biggest candy manufacturers candy brands obviously they'll probably find out from these stores that you're selling like hot cakes yeah well so everyone sees the same like data like everyone gets these reports there's these things called like um there's a company that like does the reporting for a lot of these and it's called spins and basically like all these brands like you can pull reports and you could and you could you could do the same for energy drinks like especially in a bigger uh like a store like target for example you could you could pull a report and it'll show you how much sour strips is selling how much hershey is selling how much is haribo is selling like by product it'll tell you the numbers right so everyone is seeing the same data um by the way on that what is the best selling candy and chocolate unfortunately the the best selling candy is i believe the nerds clusters right now okay they're the little uh clusters of nerd like the nerds ropes but they're little balls you had them no yeah they're like a really do you rate them see i'm just a sour guy so it's not even in like the same category for me but it's a good product like it is a really good product and it was it was innovative um and it's just easy to eat and it's like it's a but it's like the number one selling candy but but we're for example in target we're like the number three selling candy and you know i've been in there for three years pretty wild yeah and we're beating the most impressive thing is the time scale you've done this but it was that's the thing is like you know now after i started it now a lot of people are trying to replicate what i've done and maybe going down this route as well but what do you mean with the actual product or the way you did it both like they're what this new candy strip there's a lot of influencers that you i'm not going to name people but like before me no influencers were starting candy brands after me there's a handful of big big like bigger than me influencers that are starting not only just candy brands sour candy brands belt type sour candy Brandy Brands.

59:53Some are even using the wordage of sour strips. And if you look at their branding, you can tell that they're very inspired. So it's kind of like they said, oh, look, this guy can do it. And he had a small following, like, let me try. But what they don't understand or what they're going to get into, and I'm not saying like everyone's going to be successful in their own way, but like I went through the ringer on this and like, I understand like the work that has to go into it. And a lot of people are thinking they can just use their, their likeness to create this and i'm like no no like this was like i was stocking the shelves of the store of this like i'm touring the warehouses and installing racks in the warehouse like i'm like running the sales meetings like i'm doing the because i'm like passionate about this so there are a lot of people similarly doing what we're doing now but this was like a lightning in a bottle.

1:00:46Great product. Great time. Great execution. COVID happened. Stores got in big rush. I mean, it was like the perfect storm that I don't think it's, it's very hard to replicate what we did. What do you think of Mr. Beast's beastables? I don't think I've actually had the chocolate. Um, but I know that he's crushing it. Like I know he does really well. Um, but that's a different type of business model, right? Like I've talked with him um a couple times and he's talked to me about and he actually when he was so he called me when he found out i own sour strips he called me and found talked to me about that and he talked to me after the acquisition and i he actually is way more involved than i thought he was because i listened to his podcast on diary ceo yeah he's really looking into like how the actual chocolate is made and the composition that it it needs to be structured in such a way that you break it apart because if it's not made that way if you try and snap a chocolate bar just like yeah and i don't know the world of uh like of chocolate that well but like he has a whole lot on his plate that i mean but he's so popular that anything he touches can turn to gold and he has the resources and teams to help him he can get the ex-ceos of candy companies to come work for him and and help and and he but i was very impressed when i talked to him about how involved he is but with sour strips it's like it was just like my my child like you know for so many years and like uh and i'm just so passionate about candy that i i knew what the candy like world wanted so it was kind of easy to create a brand around what i would want out of a candy brand doesn't it feel weird though like giving it away that's the million dollar question you know um so you you love it so much and you sold it yeah and then i don't even know how much control you have over it anymore so i sold 100 of the company.

1:02:42So I don't own, uh, I don't own any of it. Um, I'm still on as, I guess you could kind of call me like a consultant. Um, so I'm still, uh, there's still a lot of benefit of me, like pushing the ship forward in the, in the brand, right. There's still a lot like it's to everyone's best interest to, for like the brand to keep scaling. And, um, I'm still, I still do 99 % of the exact same things that I've done for the brand before the acquisition after the acquisition. So after regardless, like you're going to when founders kind of need to be involved in the company because there's so much like intricacies and with our business, it's so small and like so many people are, you know, I do.

1:03:28If you like wrote out on paper, all the things that I do for the brand, even if it's something small with graphic design, right, you'd put me in a category of like hey when we need to create a new bag max is technically the final like he helps design the bag so he's kind of in like so it's like it you can't just like delegate out everything because you have to figure out what everyone does but um so after the acquisition is you obliged to stay on certain things yeah so i'm i'm staying on what happens if you just like now I technically could, I guess. But like, here's the thing with sour strips, man.

1:04:03I was sour strips. Like when I started it, I kind of had these like a couple of different like goals with the brand. Right. I said, I want to prove that I can do it. Like I want to prove that I can make an impact in this candy world that I like truly love. Like I really love candy. And I think it's so cool if I can like carve into this industry that is like been run by these giants for so long and I've been consuming all these products for whatever. I was like, wouldn't it be so cool if I could create a brand that like the younger me can grow up eating? Like, you know, it's like, so I just wanted to prove that I could do it and like make an impact in the candy space, right?

1:04:42So like, check, right, did that. Then it was, I wanted to like scale it to the point where like I can support myself, like I can, you know, benefit financially from it, just benefit from putting all this work in, right? Check, did that. and the the final thing that i really wanted to do was make sour strips this like i call it like a legacy brand like i want sour strips to be around forever like i want it to be one of the big sour candy brands i want it to be the biggest sour candy brand like i want to do it and you basically have to when you get offered to like sell it you're kind of like in this crossroad of not like do i doubt myself of the ability for me to do that but what is the the road is unknown of what that is it could be huge it it it could rocket ship up it could flatline it could go down now there's way a lot more competition coming in there's um there's all the the the government policy changes import like that you just don't you have no idea right so i basically was like if a company like hershey who doesn't have a lot of this type of sour stuff in their portfolio wants to add us to their to their brands they're trying to make a big name in the the sour space right because they don't they only have they like twizzlers they have jolly ranchers but other than that they're really a chocolate and like sweet and salty kind of snack brand so the fact that they wanted to acquire us i was like oh they're probably gonna want to make a big splash in the candy space like with sour so i think they'll help solidify this as this big brand that i want to do and whether or not I'm the person that's owning 100 % and saying that I own it, but if I'm fine with the pride of saying like, hey, I did that.

1:06:32Like I did that with an idea. Me and my team scaled it. One of the biggest candy companies in the world thought that what we did was so good that they wanted to bring it into their environment. And I'm able to pull chips off the table and secure myself and my family financially for the future and almost like, like just safety. Right. And I don't know what the next future of my life's going to look like. I don't know social media, if it's going to, what if it just keeps going down? Like what if it goes down dramatically? Like you just, it's the unknown. So it was a, how long did it take you to make the decision?

1:07:11It was actually really quick, but it was, it was, I never, I had never, I had never been I'd always been like okay what happens if that decision never comes but when it actually was presented I basically ran through those things in my head and I said okay I think it's okay if I walk away from the brand and I think that no one will call me an idiot for selling the company and creating generational wealth for my family Did you get any negativity from your phone? 99 % of it was positive then you got a couple people that was like sell out yes sell out or like idiot i would have like kept on like well you know when you start a candy brand and scale it up like you know it's pretty tiring bro yeah yeah it's very tiring and i was like you know it's all i could think about um you know when i'm with you know i'm married now and when i'm with like my wife and i'm like all i could think about i'd be like talking to her but all i could think about is the problems that are going on in the business right and for me to be able to present yeah for me to be able to like take a step back and we're about to try to start having a family about to start you know building um a new home we're like so i was just like i feel like i'm ready to step into the next chapter of my life which hopefully is like fatherhood and just you know i'm go all in on that yeah and i was like why why don't i secure that because it's you know i had some people that say like uh you know don't you want like your kids like the legacy of them being able to like you know work for that it's like you're you're assuming that they want to do that like you're you're planning like what if they're like i don't fucking want to work at a candy company um and i think i think i'd be able to support whatever their dreams are because of the dream that i had early on that when they grow up i can be like hey like what do you want to do we have the means to be able to facilitate helping you like start a business or do whatever so it was a lot to like weigh but uh it all that kind of went to me real fast and i said like I think for the first time in a long time I'm gonna sell at the top I don't know if it's gonna plummet down You don't know if it's gonna keep rocketing up The stresses, the headaches Legal stuff is just like I was ready to take some chips off the table You keep the figure to yourself The figure The figure's to myself I think technically If there's some Numbers nerds out there They can figure it out you can get it based on some reports that have come out, but it's not listed.

1:09:43I think I know. I'm not going to say it, but I can understand why you kind of. It's a, it's, it's a life changing amount of money. Yeah. Life changing. But I don't, the funny thing is that I don't think it's changed your life. No. You're still doing what you like to do. Yeah. Still making the YouTube videos. Mm-hmm. Like you're not being a dickhead and like, be like, look at me, my new car, like nice car. I did buy a new truck though. Yeah, but it's not like a stupid car. It's like a cool car. It is a cool car. Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, I think I was doing, like not to super pat myself on the back, but I was like doing really well financially before the exit.

1:10:22Like I was really well off before the exit. And then after it's more, it just more basically was like, hey, here's money that now you can like build the house you want to build and you don't have to blink about the like stresses, the finances, if it goes over budget. Like you can do that and you can know you can support like the house to run the house and upkeep it indefinitely and keep it in the family. You can, hey, you know, just everything for our future kids, we can support it. So it was just like, I almost felt like it was almost more, it's going to sound weird. I almost felt like it almost was more selfish for me to keep it and just for the pride of saying that like I own this brand versus like, hey, now with this money how now i can help i was able to change a lot of people's lives around with because of the sale um with a lot of people that work with me and a lot of like my family that like i that i'm able to do now so like it can benefit more than just me and so instead of the candy company just benefiting me now it benefits the people that i love and like the things are people around me so um and it's just i don't know it's like let's feel pretty good and And I'll tell you one thing.

1:11:37It does feel really good, man. I feel super fortunate. And especially people who have built businesses or are in businesses. And I talk to them about like, hey, do you think I made the right decision selling the company? Because they've been growing business for a while. They've successfully seen ups and downs. And they're all like, fuck yes. Until you're really in the weeds of business, you don't know the stresses and the ups and the downs and the financial fucking struggles. and the problems that come up and the headaches and the, you know, the HR and all this stuff. And it's just like being able to, like the brand's still going to exist.

1:12:14And I, and I'm super blessed because now I get to keep, you know, running the brand essentially. Right. I keep doing what I'm doing. And I hope to keep doing that for like a long time, like long time. Yeah. Like, I think there's a future that years from now, you're, I'm still gonna be associated with this brand um because i want to like i i didn't want to exit goose i'm out i'm gonna go get a yacht you know i'm like i'm like no i want to keep making my goofy youtube videos and i want to keep keep growing this brand because i think it can be the coolest brand in the world like the coolest sour candy brand in the world yeah do you reckon there's any way to somehow get protein in that i didn't want to do you know it's it's it's so interesting that i get asked a lot because we'll go to like gym shark events and they'll ask we'll be at all their lift events and and all the people who maybe come up and don't know about it we'll go like is this like pre-workout or like is there creatine or is this like healthy candy i'm like nope and they're almost like why is it at a fitness event it launching sour strips into the fitness community is the most strange thing in the world that just worked yeah like and i looked at it as if you could get the fitness obsessed people to like accept it into their culture i mean we're sold in like nutrition shops now gold's gyms like corporate gold's gyms uh you know that's pretty mad oh it's crazy like i almost like made candy acceptable like at scale in like the fitness community but no i have no intention of putting any sort of i wonder if you can get that protein water i wonder if there's a way the way i look at it is i'm kind of a hypocrite probably fuck with the taste of it yeah when i eat when i buy like peanut butter i'll get the no sugar added peanut butter when i get a soda i'll get a diet coke right um if i get ice cream i'll i'll eat the halo top that's like maybe better for you right so i'm i'll eat protein chips versus regular chips like i'm i'll eat all these substitutes but when it comes to candy i refuse i i don't think there's a substitute for it because I've like the better for you I'm like yeah kinda it's okay but I don't think there's a substitute for candy at least yet and that's why like I and that's why almost I didn't have as much like competition I was competing against like the mammoths in the space but everyone else who was like trying to start brands is making like better for you healthy versions of candy and I said no no no I want you know I want you know in moderation just regular candy sugar yeah it's very rare that you'll or that for me at least i try something that tries to be the healthier version or the version with protein in it and it tastes better it usually tastes horrible i'm like i accept the calorie content is pretty much the same anyway you get a bit more protein in it but still same amount of calories i'd rather like for example you know you got like snickers bar and you got the protein snickers yeah snickers bar tastes better prime example i think candy there's no substitute yeah but with like but i'm a sucker for protein snacks protein chips and all those yeah but for candy and i just uh i think candy should be candy and maybe maybe that'll change over the years like i i don't know but do you think um obviously with trump and um and them trying to make america healthier that will affect the candy consumption sales i don't know i i think i think there's i think there absolutely is a huge shift i'm assuming worldwide but definitely in america of and i'm a part of it and i see it around me of like people being more health conscious and health aware you know like greens companies and iron like the saunas and the cold plunge everyone's like trying to be healthier which is great um but i i mean i've been scaling for the past five years and there's been zero slowdown because again maybe i can sit and binge like five bags of sour strips in one sitting but you know hey if you just have a bag here and there a couple strips before your workout for a little quick you know sugar spike like yeah sugars maybe processed sugar is not like ideal for you but in the grand scheme of things like it's it's okay like in moderation yeah moderation and obviously be active go to the gym yeah if you sit on your ass all day and you don't do anything and you're eating shitloads of you know baked goods cakes candy then obviously yeah it's probably not going to be good for you that's why i wanted to go down in history as the uh the most jacked candy entrepreneur of all time i don't think you can you've tried to bulk but it doesn't it doesn't really no no i can't i'm how much do you think i weigh i know you're over here with your kilos uh

1:17:1279 kilo what is that what go check it you do pounds yeah because i'm in america dude 79 kg to pounds 174 pounds um no i am 73 kg why are you laughing what's the heaviest you mean i've been uh i've been a little bit more i've probably been in the 80 kg like 180 ish pounds but that was like early on but see i the thing is i needed to be the skinny guy that could deadlift a lot and when i first started getting into working out and i started finally seeing abs a little bit i never wanted to lose them so i refused to bulk and i would always say everyone's like you need to get bigger and i go yeah but i can deadlift more than you yeah so like why imagine if your genetics were different and you did like you put away serious amount of candy and you just got like really fat i know i'm i'm thankful that i'm like i have a super fast metabolism that i can just like burn all this stuff off and i'm just like high energy all the time so i think i just burn calories just doing nothing but i don't i i also like i don't eat like on sundays i'll eat a pizza i love like i'll eat cheat days and stuff like that but for the most part like i can't eat you would never want to you would never want to invite me to a eating contest with you because i can't yeah like you know i can go to all you can eat buffet and i'm just gonna have like one plate maybe a plate and a half um so i i also um like for me to maintain for if i needed to eat 3500 calories a day to be a heavier you know kg i'd so people be like oh just make one of the shakes like i used to back in the day with like the olive oil and the oats i don't want to fucking do that right like i the weight that i'm at now and i'm like on the leaner side now but like this is really manageable for me like in terms of like being hungry throughout the day eating kind of what i want and i don't fluctuate up and down that much i guess i don't like eat i don't like eating a lot of food but i would there's there's there's days that i just dream about if i had a physique like yours listening in the sun how many how much do you weigh i have around 94 kilograms oh my god how much is that 94 200 over i couldn't imagine a world being over 200 pounds i don't i don't feel heavy i think a lot of it i do have quite a bit in my legs i do not have a bit in my leg i think actually if i wanted to put on some weight i think i could just keep working out my legs and maybe that would add a little mass yeah but one thing is as i you know i said hopefully go into fatherhood and you know i'm getting older i'm 35 um how many because you want three i do think there's something now and i may have to learn some defense mechanisms or just you know in texas we can have guns but um i do think think there's something that i'm not super happy with with the weight i'm at if i'm like a 40 year old dad being 160 pounds like you know i just i you're like i know exactly what you're saying like but uh i yeah i do wish i was a little heavier just because i'm like can you be a 40 year old father at 160 pounds or is that kind of like like soaking wet i don't know oh wait how i think one of the the interesting things will be how do you raise your kids like assuming they're boys to have the same hunger and drive and ambition that you had i think it kind of naturally comes like i didn't my family dynamic was super i don't say unique i'm sure a lot of people gone through it but like my family split up you know in like the first half of my life when i was 10 or not half but like for when i was 10 i lived a completely different life and then i moved when i was 10 to like just live with my mom so like really for my your dad passed yeah my dad passed when i was when i was 15 but when i was 10 i moved away from like my dad and uh my dad my stepmom and my brother and just moved with my mom and my sister.

1:21:18But then quickly after I moved my mom, my sister, my sister got into some trouble and she had to move back with my dad. So from like 11 to 18, I live, I was just raised by my mom. Right. So, which my, my wife Taylor says that she thinks that's why I, uh, don't get angry a lot. And maybe I have, maybe cause I was around like my mom's calm and feminine. So, um, I don't know if that, you know, helped me in that aspect, but like, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't raised, my dad was an entrepreneur early on, but in the years that I can remember the most, like my mom worked a corporate job, didn't, didn't have a side hustle, didn't do anything like that.

1:21:53I just worked in my Jeeps and all my, even all through college it, um, I was surrounded by just friends just want to go out and drink, hang out, get a job. So it wasn't until I was 23, you know, but before that was like, what really like sparked to me just getting more but it's really i i found something when i find something i love which is most people like i just get obsessed with it it was like that working on cars and jeeps when i was younger and then skateboarding and with that and then with youtube i just got obsessed with i love making videos and making people laugh and i've always been like the you still filming and editing everything by yourself yeah editing as well yeah yeah because i film i i can't imagine you letting someone else edit your videos oh no oh no even when i had this is wrong this transition is shit oh yeah what the hell is that i've had and i i've had periods of time where i've had filmers and like they'll make like sick content you know i'm like hey let's make a gym edit right and like it's nothing i could create because i can't film myself you know moving around and shit but like i found myself basically self-directing the videos I'd be like, okay, all right, like when we pull up to the store, get out and get a shot of the car pulling in right there.

1:23:07And then come over here and I'll get out. I was directing the video. So I do film and edit all my content. I even film and edit. I do all the podcasts as well. You edit the podcast? Yeah. What the hell's wrong with you? I'm going to tell you something, which I don't know if these are the people that edit your podcast, but I can edit. go watch any of my podcasts okay i can once that footage is in the program i haven't started editing yet it's just in the program i've timed myself with all the programs going on i can finish the entire episode in seven minutes seven minutes of my time from start to finish i can edit the thumbnail the entire podcast import the footage and everything in under 30 minutes and i'm not even exaggerating so it's like really quick okay um so it's like super simple for me and i like doing it you're fired he's like he's fine is good um i uh i really like doing it but also it helps me edit my videos quickly because i film i'm editing the video as i'm filming it like i yeah like sometimes i physically go and sit down at the computer and edit it like almost in real time um because i'll be like oh that was a sick shot let me see how that turned out but i also like when i'm filming i know i'm i'm mapping out the video in my head i'm like okay um i'm gonna start the video like right here okay i'm gonna talk for like a minute and a half then i need to go into like some b-roll okay i'm gonna install this thing in my truck and after that i'll do a little talk and i'm gonna make some lunch in a little bit so like i that really is a love for the craft yeah and i but it's it must be annoying though because that's you can't stop thinking about it i know like i i've experienced that sometimes when i go traveling and i'm i'm basically filming everything when i do yeah i see the vlogs in your hand yeah when i do like the travel vlogs i'm with a partner or whatever a lovely lady a lovely lady um the problem is that sometimes i'm not giving her any attention because i'm thinking about the vlog i'm like i want to get these shots i want to say this i want to do that and i can't be 100 present with that person which sometimes annoys me.

1:25:13I think I've been doing it for so long that I kind of know how to pretend to listen to your wife. No, no. No, she's super used to the vlogs because I'll be like, alright, okay, let's sit down at the table. She kind of goes along with it and she supports what I do. But I also, for me, I'm like, okay, if I film a vlog, I make a video. Right now, I pretty much put a video up every Sunday. I put one vlog a week. but I, I pretty much work on the businesses. I mean, I kind of can do dynamically both, but like I'll work for like maybe Monday through Wednesday or Monday through Thursday. And then pretty much Friday and Saturday I film unless something big is happening in the week.

1:25:56Then, so I just, I just make filming the day or two before, but I'll make sure like, okay, those days that I'm planning on those days I'm going to film, uh, you know, is there anything going on that's going to like mess that up like do i have a big family outing for easter with my wife's family okay i'm not going to film that so i need to figure out i'm going to film ahead of time so i'm always kind of mapping it out like this sunday's video like i have no idea what i'm going to film yet i haven't even started filming um but just the day before it's good to know because you have such a loyal audience you can pretty much go off and do anything and they're just going to tune in that's the that's that's i i like to think i've got to that point where and it has happened in the past couple of years i have no plan for this video but i'm like let's just go here people like the most and see what happens because i think people want i mean i i get in my head like a lot with my content because i'm trying to not only like make the best shot and have the best content had the best flow like i also don't do a lot of uh i don't watch my clips and if i'm talking for a minute and a half sometimes i'll have to refilm we're filming here go scare the shit out of me for the face i don't think it hurt he sneezed um a lot of times i'll i'll i'll think about what i'm gonna say before i'm gonna film this clip and sometimes i'll screw up what i want to say because it all is like a joke that i'm like thinking it has to be done delivered the right way yeah and when and sometimes i'll like and i'll re-sit down and turn the camera like four times and never have that been there yeah and sometimes i'm thinking i'm like does this lose all that i'm not really filming what i'm doing i'm like scripting yeah but i'm like more rehearsed but i'm like no this is a banger line i need to say but i also don't like doing jump cuts so like like the minute i'm gonna talk i want that to be like one clip of me doing because i'll i'll map out like okay i want to hit these two two points in my thing and then i'll just yolo the rest of the conversation yeah um but i kind of have a flow well i think you're i get the impression you're you're very organized and structured and you're very passionate about it and that's one of the reasons why it's i just like you use your time i imagine you use your time very wisely see what's great is i think if you actually like analyzed everything you'd be like max is unorganized he's chaotic nothing is structured it's it's i'm kind of all over the place bro and but i uh i do just love making videos and well what i think i like about it is even back in like high school and stuff, I was always getting in trouble for can you believe this?

1:28:25Just running my mouth, just not shutting up. So I'd always get like kicked out of class for just being the class clown, like trying to make people laugh. So that's what I enjoy the most out of making content. Like I like, I like that people can follow the journey and they've seen me, you know, build these brands. So maybe they come in now, they can see, oh, he put in the work. Like I definitely put in the work and maybe they get some motivation, they get some inspiration or some life tips when i'm doing but for the most part like the content that i want to make is literally just so when people watch my videos they can just be like i mean i just want to sit down and like laugh smile yeah watch like you can kick back and just yeah i'll watch some of my shit and i tell my wife all the time i'm like i could understand why people would not like me like i could because i'm just like i'm fucking annoying bro like especially i get like in my kind of personality my character on like youtube and i ant my personality up but i just like when i'm i'm like giggling while i'm watching my like editing my videos my call this was do people are gonna love this like oh this is a great line and like so it's uh and i essentially i make youtube videos for people that already watch my youtube videos yeah it's i don't i just made a truck raptor video and i got like 800 new subscribers normally i'm like losing subscribers every month right but so it's it's but i get really consistent views video over video one of the most consistent but it's because people are just like used they've been like growing up with me and like my videos are just random shit i'm doing yeah but i try to have like i still try to have like okay i want to make them different i want to make it i don't want them to be the same video every time but i'm i just like okay you know i haven't i haven't like filmed in my pool in a while let me go like filming my pool i don't know i i try to every video i want people to be like i don't know what fuck max is gonna do yeah and you have to get creative when you're obviously you're staying in one place yeah and you have like the same routine every day like going to work same gym like you just have to come up with something a little bit different you have to because if people especially during like the people like max you should feel more of like what you do at work i'm like guys i just sit at the computer yeah like for hours and answer emails like hours that's what i do all day every day that's what i do sometimes when i've been in dubai for too long and i'm like fuck it's like this dubai content is getting a bit dead i just need to go but here's what i've here's what i've thought you you think that about your own content because when i'm like okay every video is like started in my house and i can't i just can't keep filming my house people gonna get tired of like filming like me filming in this spot right but when i watch maybe your content my friend uh do you know david had a beast yeah yeah um one of my best buddies and it's like when he's filming in his kitchen or his gym like i know that he does that every single day but me as a viewer i don't process that he's in the same spot like same place every single video but when i'm editing my own videos i'm like man people are gonna get bored of me doing this like i think we think we think that people are gonna get tired of you filming the same thing but i found my videos perform worse when i travel they want me to do the same shit that i've i could put a video and go and like you know exploring the swiss alps like you know snowboarding down zermatt right and but then i could post a video like there's a new leak in my house that i'm fixing and people like way more views on that because the people people want you to be relatable but not too relatable but not too unrelatable yeah it's like i think i got into that territory of being too unrelatable it's good it's because your life started getting too sick yeah and then And yeah, I kind of had to pull it back a little bit.

1:32:05Like if you filmed like just the most lax video. I did it and I was in Marbella and I was by myself and I was like, I need to put a video out. And it was literally, in my opinion, like the most boring videos ever. It was just like a day in the life of me just not really doing anything. Yeah, they love it. And everyone was like, oh man, make more of these. Bro, I did a video. I'll think of a video doesn't have like drone and B-roll and music in between that it's shit because I'm like, oh, I can edit this in 10 minutes because it's just clip, clip, clip clip clip upload um i think it's boring people love that i did a video one time where i uh you know bob ross the painter no he's uh he passed away but he's just like old relaxed painter guy who's just like we're gonna paint some little clouds beautiful little clouds like and it's big painter guy um but i did a video one time where the second half of the video was like eight minutes of me and it was kind of chaotic because shit kept falling everywhere but i just sat and watched a bob ross video and i painted like it and i'm just talking to random and people lost their minds of how much they loved it like just the most simple things i did a similar thing where i was i was doing a 3 000 calorie meal prep video and i was timing myself and i had to do it as quickly as possible i think i did it in like 14 minutes so i was filming the whole thing the two cameras on a tripod and i was just commentating as i was doing it so nothing particularly exciting but if you kind of add a little bit of your personality make it entertaining for some reason people just trust i think they were they were trying to see no no way can this guy we are our own worst enemy like we think that we think that people want like all this stuff but people just want and again like i know these things but i still will get in my head about it but like people just want to feel like they're hanging out with you that they're your friend you're just chilling with the bros like you know and watch and then it's great to put things that are like you know aspirational in there like hey i you know i i show pretty much everything that i do in my life and if people like stumbled into the videos they'd be like oh this guy's just like showing off this stuff and i'm like no i just i film everything like if i'm building a house and it's going to be a sick house, you know, it's just because that's what I'm doing, right?

1:34:21I'm not building it so I can show you guys. I just, I film everything. I film everything. So why wouldn't I show this? I think the views will go up again as soon as you start building the house. Well, that's going to be like a two-year build. So I, that's like all my content's going to be, but no, when I did the house content, that was exciting. And yeah, then people can follow along and put it in a playlist. You know, do you know Matt does fitness? Yes. He did the same thing with his house. He built, he basically. Wild, his sick house.

1:34:48They bought an existing house, but it was old. They basically knocked it down. So it was just a shell. And then it was the whole process of them making it to what it is today. And it's a sick house now. It's just like just a journey. And then obviously you get the final video, which has like all of you. When I renovated my whole house, I basically tore the entire house out. And it was just cool to see like, oh, this is what it was. Oh, that was shit. And it was like problem after problem. Like you tear open a wall and be like, oh, there's water leakage outside. Oh, crap. Or then this flooded. And so it was kind of chaotic.

1:35:17but I'm super excited to build, build the next house. And maybe at that point, maybe I'll either every video will just be the house or I'll, maybe I'll start uploading twice a week and say like one house video, one vlog. I'll probably just do one in one a week. How are you, you and your wife going to kind of build this and agree. So how it's going to be. So we get along super well. We have the same kind of like vision. We've hired a, a design firm out of like Arizona that is, the way I look at it is that like, I basically not like say I took over cause I still want, wanted her input and still we want to flow.

1:35:55But like the, the layout of the house of the size of the rooms, where these are going to be placed, like the architecture of like the room layout. I basically led that. Like she kind of trusted in me. Like she had a lot of input, but it was kind of like, Hey, I, that's cute anyway. But on the flip side, she is like, i'm basically letting her lead the the the design like direction because every single picture video tiktok anything she sent me of house stuff i'm like this is sick as fuck like nothing is got taste very yeah very good taste yeah for sure and she and she know i mean she knows we're best friends like she knows me in and out so she knows what i what it'd be like a hell no and she knows what i like and she'll know certain things of like all right just just hear me out like like what do you think about this and you know some things i'm like no no but like i i trust in her she trusted me and um the house is gonna be sick yeah beyond sick it might be too sick actually well we'll wrap up there because we're gonna switch roles you are going to interview me so go head over to don't be sour check out when it this one's going up in a while right yeah i've not it's probably already out my my mine actually yeah i think i might put this one up on monday okay so it'll definitely be out yeah oh it'll definitely be out yeah for sure awesome well it's inspiring i mean honestly watching you do everything you've done and build this from nothing is pretty fucking crazy and i remember when i think rob was the first person who broke the news to me and i just had the biggest smile on my face i was like no way fucking max of all Max fucking sold Sour Ship to fucking Hershey's.

1:37:40I'm like, what? That's an Irish accent, by the way. Was that a good one? No. No? Eh, what's up? I'm Rob. I'm Rob Lipset. Eh, I'm going to loaf you, mate. Awesome, man. Thank you very much for watching. And head over to where can people find you? Max Tuning on YouTube. Don't Be Sour podcast. Just search Max Two X's. You'll find me. I'm hard to miss. Yeah, Two X's. don't make that mistake yeah adios peace