The $150B Supplement Industry Scam (And How LiveGood is Breaking It) | Ep 269 with Ben Glinsky Founder of LiveGood

0:00Today's episode is sponsored by PipeDrive, the number one CRM tool for small to medium businesses. I'm excited to share more about them later in the episode. This industry might be full of a scam. Everyone needs supplements, but there's definitely a lot of shady stuff, dirty stuff going on out there. And the biggest one is lack of transparency. I've heard that it's a$150 billion market. People have always kind of compared high quality to high quality. And that's not always the case. I remember buying Pro Hormones and I remember other supplements that turns out they put like steroids in the first batch.

0:41Most of these products that you see out there, they're using cheap ingredients, low quality ingredients so they can improve the pop proportions. We're using only highest volume, cleanest, purest, healthiest, premium USDA certified organic ingredients. But at the same time, once people see it, once they understand it, they're not going to go back to spending 60 bucks for a lower quality product, I mean, no, they can get the best one for half the price.

1:10So Ben, I got to say the supplement world is something I've been passionate about since I was about 14 years old. So we're talking, I don't even know, almost 30 years. And I've seen so many parts of it that I just couldn't believe in. So I'm glad that someone like yourself is really looking to disrupt it. I've heard that it's$150 billion market. And I know I've listened to the things that you said. And one might say, this industry might be full of a scam or scams in the supplement industry. So what is the ugly truth that no one wants to admit? Yeah, it's a big space. It's a big industry. Everyone needs supplements.

1:52So it's a necessary industry. But there's definitely a lot of shady stuff, dirty stuff going on out there. And the biggest one is lack of transparency. Companies will, here I've got some competitor products here. So you have to list what's in the product, the list of ingredients, but you don't have to tell people how much of any ingredient is in there. And that's kind of what most, I shouldn't even say kind of, that's what most brands are doing out there. They call it a proprietary blend and they just list a bunch of ingredients and don't tell you how much of anything is in it. And so to buy a product for, they're pretty expensive.

2:32And that's the other crazy thing about this industry. Most products cost like that one, you know, eight to 10 bucks to make and companies are selling it for 59, 69, 79 bucks. So they can have big profit margins. They could pay out big influencers, pay out a lot of commissions to people to be able to go out there and sell it, talk good about it, all that stuff. The challenge there is that number one, you don't know what's in it, but number two, people can't afford it. I mean, the average person only stays on a supplement for three months because they're too expensive. And that doesn't help people get healthy.

3:02And the whole point of supplements is to help people get healthy. And so what we recognize is, hey, you know, what if we can give people the highest quality supplements with full transparency, show them all the toxicity tests, the heavy metals test, the third party tests that other companies talk about and never show you and give them to people for just a few dollars above cost. And that's exactly what we're doing. So unlike this product that costs$59, isn't organic, doesn't even tell you what's in it, this is our highest quality USDA certified organic super greens. If you want to know exactly what's in it, every single ingredient is listed right there on the label in the exact amount, 1 ,600 milligrams of spirulina.

3:38For those of you who know what spirulina is, probably the most nutrient-dense superfood on the planet, and about half the price, just$24.95 retail. and we have a member program, just$18 for members of Lidget. So yeah, overpriced products, not transparent. That's the problem with the industry and that's what we're fixing. Man, yeah. I remember buying, there was a superfood I used to buy. It was like$100 and container was like this big. I mean, it's crazy what you're saying. I've experienced that. Now, I think a lot of the, I think because the industry has been this way for so long, many people that are into buying supplements, they just see this as the norm.

4:19And they might see a lower priced product actually be thinking it's less quality. But what you're saying is it's a better quality at even a better price. So what have you done to change that mindset? Yeah, you're absolutely right. People have always kind of compared high quality to high price or high price to high quality, however you want to look at it. And that's not always the case, as we just showed you. So most of these products that you see out there, they're using cheap ingredients, low quality ingredients, so they can improve the profit margins. We're using only highest quality, cleanest, purest, healthiest, premium USDA certified organic ingredients, showing people all the full testing analysis, all that stuff that we talked about.

5:04And again, offering them for a few dollars above cost. So yes, that kind of education has been our biggest challenge. But at the same time, once people see it, once they understand it, they're not going to go back to spending 60 bucks for a lower quality product when they know they could get the best one for half the price. And so that education is really waking people up. And at the same time, we're getting help from the economy, help from society, help from AI, help from chat, GPT, Google all this stuff because it's a lot easier now than it was 10, 15 years ago when you just blindly kind of believe in whoever, you know, people would make a product because Dr.

5:44Oz said, I'll say you, Gary, resveratrol was good. And so, hey, this product has resveratrol in it. I'm going to buy it. I'm going to, you know, or I'm going to sell it for 60 bucks. People are going to buy it, but that doesn't work anymore. People can compare prices. I mean, you got Amazon. That's the first thing people do is go to Amazon and see if they could get it for cheaper or get something similar for cheaper. And so when we have that full transparency, there's no secrets. We're not hiding anything. We're showing everyone exactly what, I mean, you don't have to ask us for those certificates and analysis.

6:14We publish them right there on the website. And so when you recognize what's going on in the economy, you align yourself with the trends, with the way that consumers are shopping and spending their money and just their buying habits, you really give yourself an advantage and position yourself to win and help a lot of people. I love the transparency. I think there's a lot of direct consumer products that need more transparency, especially with the supplement world. I mean, I remember buying pro hormones and I remember other supplements that turns out they put like steroids in the first batch, which is insane.

6:49Like there was so much stuff in like the early 2000s. It was really wild, wild west. I know you've hit over 2 million customers in two years, which is insanity. So what did you do different that the giants in the industry didn't? Yeah, great question. Let me actually start with the first thing you talked about with the product you were buying that had extra stuff in it that you didn't even know, the company didn't even tell you. They did a study at the University of Mississippi. They bought 30 supplements on Amazon, tested all of them to see if what was on the label was actually in the product.

7:24And of those 30 products, 17 of them didn't even match what was on the label. Most of them were missing ingredients. Some of them actually had extra stuff like you're talking about that wasn't on the label. And that's scary. And so just another reason you really got to know who to trust in this industry. And most companies, you don't even know who's making these products. Most of the time, it's a big corporation. They're just doing it to make money. They're not taking the products themselves. And to not know who's making these products and if they're using, why they're making them, that's a scary thing.

7:59But to answer your question, yeah, 2 million members, again, once people see it, they can't unsee it. They're not going to go back to spending 60, 80 bucks for a lower quality product when they know they could get the highest quality for the lowest price. And so we're really shifting a lot of mindsets out there. And it started slow, as we talked about. You had to really educate people, let them know that, hey, high quality doesn't have to mean high price. For the first time, you get value. And higher quality, lowest price is actually a thing now. The supplement space is huge. People need supplements and when they can get the best at the best price, it just makes sense.

8:37And so really no surprise that we've become the fastest growing company in the supplement space, 2 million members in two and a half years, and just getting started. So was there a specific marketing tactic or something that you found really worked that you tripled down on. And also, because you said something early on that if you have a very high margin product or a high expensive product with a high margin, you can dump a lot of money into the marketing. So what you're doing is very unique. And I think in not just the supplement space, But I also see this in like the health, the beauty space, skincare, that it also runs very similar.

9:20So was there a special marketing tactic or technique that you find or had found that worked really well? Yeah, that's a great question. And yeah, we moved into the skincare space, clean, healthy, affordable skincare, same with pets. I've spoken to hundreds of entrepreneurs and one of the biggest pain points they share is generating consistent quality leads. Most founders spend hours chasing down prospects, juggling outreach, and still end up with missed opportunities. That's why I recommend today's sponsor, PipeDrive, the number one CRM tool for small to medium businesses. Top sales teams are using PipeDrive to close an average of three times more leads per month.

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10:55So unlike, you know, when you have a$6 product that you're selling for 80 bucks, there's a lot of money in there to spend on advertising and still be profitable. When you're making a product for 12 or$13 and selling it for 18, the margins are a lot tighter. So the way we built it at the beginning was almost exclusively through affiliates. And because of our membership model, very similar to Costco, I mean, Costco has tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of items in their stores, that's not where the money is made. They make very small profit margins on those items, just very similar to how we do with our supplements.

11:34They make their money on the membership,$60 a month,$60 a year to$120 a year, depending on which package you get. We're$10 a month. If anyone's buying more than one product a month, you're going to save more than$10 from the difference between the member price and the retail price. And so we've been paying out those affiliates on that membership. So we don't have to mark up the cost of the products. That's how we're keeping prices low, giving people highest quality, lowest price. And at the same time, helping some affiliates get the word out. They've got followers, they've got influencers, make some money by helping share the highest quality, lowest price.

12:10And it's a very easy model. I mean, when you've got an$80 product, it's harder to convince people that, hey, this is a good product, especially when you're not tell them what's in it. And then we've got a very amazing quality products at a great price. It's very easy for people to see it and trials. And same time, we've got a 90-day empty bottle of money back here. It's easy. There's no risk. It's working. Yeah. It's great to hear that affiliate marketing is still strong, if not stronger than ever. You have the likes of TikTok shop and other shop, YouTube and Instagram. They're all launching their own.

12:48Have you looked at or thought about, I know you said something before about AI around the recent launch. I don't think Shopify has picked it up yet, but ChatGBT is going to be integrating shop and the ability to buy on site within ChatGBT. Any thoughts on that? Yeah. So as far as the influencers, I mean, that market and affiliates is getting crazy. I mean, everybody wants to be an influencer now and it's working. I mean, TikTok is blowing up. They're also doing live shopping now. Facebook is always huge. Google's huge. So all this stuff, I mean, there's so many different ways, but I think it's getting a little bit diluted and people are at least going to start not necessarily trusting everything that they hear out there.

13:34And ChatGPT is an interesting one. And yes, to answer your question, that's where people have full-on conversations with ChatGPT. I mean, they don't want to make a decision. They asked ChatGPT to make the decision for him. And my son did it this morning. He's like, who should I play in my fantasy football team? You know, this guy or this guy? And ChatGPT told him, you know, who to play. So, you know, we're definitely doing a lot on the SEO and now it's called GEO, Generative Engine Optimization, which is the AI ChatGPTs and the Gronk and all that stuff to educate those systems on what we do. And yeah, it's interesting.

14:12Things are moving. Things are moving fast, changing fast. So we'll see where it goes. And I think from a business perspective, I know you got a lot of entrepreneurs listening, a lot of new young entrepreneurs, a lot of more seasoned ones, but you got to adapt. You got to align yourself with what's working, what's happening in the marketplace, where consumers are spending the money and the advertising side, same thing. What's working out there? What's driving traffic? What's driving conversions? What's getting people's attention? And yeah, you stay in front of it, find your niche, find your way to make it work and hit it hard.

14:45I remember we started selling skincare and beauty health on Amazon in 2012. It was amazing. But then after four or five years, Amazon really destroyed the ability to make any profit there. And a lot of the players then either went out of business or had to move. So yeah, I like you're saying it's you got to adapt and you got to be up. You got to be at the forefront of things, trying things, doing things because you never know, you might lose it. You might lose that platform and now you have nothing. So it's great that you're diversifying. I'm curious around the ups and downs. Like I think we all know that entrepreneurship Sounds incredible, but it's not easy and you got to work a lot.

15:30So is there a time for you, any story where something happened and you're like, you know what, I'm just going to quit. This is it. It doesn't mean the business was bad, but maybe the stress, maybe family, something happened in your life where you're like, you know what, I'm just going to give up. But you didn't. That's a great question. I mean, I've been in the space for the last 20 plus years, brought a lot of products to market and fortunate to have made a lot of money, helped a lot of people. But six years ago, I walked away. I was done. It wasn't that I quit because it wasn't working or wasn't making money.

16:01I actually had a very successful company at the time. I merged it into another company and made sure people could still get the products and be happy. But I just didn't like where the industry had gone. I didn't feel just morally and ethically was my issue. I didn't feel right about selling overpriced products anymore. I didn't really know how to fix it at that time. And so I was done. I walked away. But I don't know if that's really a question you were asking as far as, you know, challenges are always going to happen in any business. And I look at the challenges as an opportunity. I'm always thankful for the good, the bad, the ugly, everything, because even challenges are an opportunity to learn, to grow, to get better and to take it to that next level.

16:44And so when you're able to not get frustrated with it and, you know, just look, don't get upset. And this is the challenge with a lot of people. You let emotion get into it and you're toast. It's over. But if you look at it, you're like, all right, what are we going to do? What's the solution? Let's put together a game plan and let's move forward. And then you get over that hurdle and another one's going to come. It's inevitable. It just continues to happen. And like you said, yeah, stuff changes. I remember about maybe 15, 20 years ago, Google stopped allowing, They were doing all those, what do they call them, continuity programs where people would buy, you know, get a free trial for something and then they'd get billed every month.

17:25And Google, like, turned it off overnight. And all these people, all these affiliate marketers and affiliate networks and stuff were, like, they lost a ton of business and didn't know what to do. So, yeah, you know, and now more than ever, with AI, things are moving so fast, changing so fast. And so, you know, you just got to expect it. think changes are coming and you've got to be ready. And, and, you know, when they, if you get ahead of them, awesome. If they just, you know, surprise it, that's fine. You know, just recognize it, figure out what to do and move forward. But if you try to keep doing stuff that's not working anymore, that's when, you know, that's when you lose.

18:02I like that. You got to adapt or die. So you, I, I enjoy this story. So you, you were working or you're sorry, you were with this company before, whether it was your company, say Merge, there was overpriced and then you walked away. So when you walked away, what was it like when you, did you immediately say, okay, my mission is the things that you've said before. This is my mission. I'm going to sell prices. I'm going to sell products, great quality, transparent at an affordable rate. This is what I'm going to do. And you went and did it or was there a transitional period? And how was it when you started?

18:39Take me back to that time. Yeah, good question. I mean, I had this idea in my mind well before I walked away. But when I walked away, when I retired, I was done. I was not coming back. I was happy. I made enough money to be happy. I moved on to other projects. I bought a golf course here locally. That's been my fun project. I started a nonprofit soccer club. We got 15 teams of kids helping them. We have a No Kid Let Me High program. We scholarship. A lot of kids who can't afford to play travel soccer otherwise. So, you know, I have other projects that I enjoy, that I like, that are, you know, keep my time.

19:17So I had no intention of coming back to this space. I just continue to kind of watch it get worse instead of better. Companies get more and more greedy. And just the challenge of being able to get affordable supplements at their high quality was non-existent. So, you know, as the economy continued to change, as consumer buying habits continue to shift away from expensive overpriced things more towards affordability and value, it's like someone's got to fix this. No one was doing it. So, you know, let's come back and make it happen. So was there a or what was the most rewarding story that you've heard from a live good customer and really made you realize that this is way bigger than just supplements?

20:02Yeah, great question. And that was the thing since the beginning. And I think that's been our biggest advantage is this has been more of a passion product, mission focused, as you said, than money driven. I wanted to fix this broken industry. I genuinely want to help people get healthy, stay healthy, and do it in an affordable way. Because on top of the consumer buying habits shifting, the world is as unhealthy as it's ever been. More people are obese and overweight than any time before in history. More people are on prescription medication than ever before. Lifespans are going down. People are dying earlier.

20:38Like stuff is not working. And so I want to do my part to fix that and make it more affordable. And supplements are so easy. Most people, to get them to change their diet or start exercising or focus on their sleep, those are harder things. They should be doing that anyway. Supplements are so easy. You take a supplement. In the midst of it, you swallow a capsule. Like it doesn't get any easier than that. It can have such a huge impact on your life. So, yeah, you know, when you're driven by the mission, it really is a different outlook and a different way to run a company. And, you know, when you're keeping...

21:16So I keep my overhead very low. We don't have a ton of corporate employees. We have a very lean staff, which allows us to be able to keep the prices low and be able to save people money, give them high quality without compromising quality or price. And yeah, I don't know if that answered your question, but it's worth it. Yeah, no, it's the amazing thing I think now with technology is you can have a leaner team. You can do more than what you could do before with even more team members and still be able to provide the savings back to the end user and customer. It seems like this could be a trend for a lot of other industries and products going forward as these companies can maximize on the margins that they have without having to spend, you know, maybe having a whole team of marketing and all that because AI and such, you can do more with less.

22:09But I really like what you said around creating a company that A, solves a problem, but really is something that you are super passionate about and that you really know and understand. That I think is super important. And thank you for sharing that. Because if you're, like you said, if you're going through, if you're just going at it for the money, we already know what normally happens then. It's probably not going to last. So Ben, if people want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more about Live Good, they want to follow your story, your journey, maybe they want to get one of these awesome shirts that you're wearing.

22:44How can they do so? Yeah, great question. But yes, you know, when it's about the passion and all the money and the mission and genuinely helping people, it really is a different mindset. And, you know, chasing money isn't necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't mean the company is going to fail, but it means decisions are made differently. And, you know, when decisions are made on money, instead of helping people, that's when, you know, this whole non-transparent thing, the whole shadiness stuff happens. And, you know, when you're focused on number one, helping people, generally helping people, just giving and not allowing them to get hurt.

23:17And that's what, you know, that's why I walked away. People were spending 60, 80 bucks for a single product. It wasn't helping them get healthy. Even though it was a good product, they couldn't afford it. And so, and because one product isn't going to change someone's life. Like we have, we've got like 40 products right now. And so like, you know, we talked about our super groups, best, so important for digestive health, immune strength, stress, anxiety, energy, awesome products are super reds, highest quality cardiovascular health products ever created. Heart disease is the number one killer in the world.

23:50This is packed, nitric oxide, boosting ingredients, great for sexual health, brain health, energy. An awesome product, our essential aminos, great for muscle support, but just basic fundamental stuff. Everyone needs a multivitamin. None of us are getting everything we need out of our daily diets. Most high quality multivitamins are selling for 30 or 40 bucks. This is the highest quality on the market, just 9.95, less than 10 bucks a month, less than 30 cents a day for something everyone should be taking. And safety and magnesium plays a role in every single thing our bodies do. If something's not working in your body, you're probably not getting enough magnesium.

24:23It is such a simple thing. Again, most companies,$30,$40,$8.95 with a full 90-day empty bottle money-back guarantee. If you don't absolutely love any of our products, send back the empty bottle. We'll happily give you a refund. Another one, vitamin D3, K2. We call this our daily essentials pack. This is three products. are magnesium, multivitamin, and vitamin D. So important for just immune system support, bone health, heart health, brain health. Vitamin D is super important. But those free for 27 bucks as a member of LIVCIT. Less than a dollar a day for just no brainer supplements that everybody should be taking.

25:00That's insane, Ben. That is great. But okay, magnesium, I think may have saved my life. I am a huge proponent of magnesium. And the other great thing I find about magnesium, I get incredible dreams when I take magnesium, but when I don't, I'm like dreamless. It's really bizarre, but it's really been something for me that that's been incredible. I think that the fact that you're trying to allow people to afford not just one product, but all of the products that they need to take, or they might be lacking makes a lot of sense. And that, that is definitely a problem to solve in the marketplace of what you're doing.