#30 - From Idea to Energy Drink Brand: How STEEP Was Built with Kevin Schmidt

 Entrepreneurship podcast about starting a business, building a startup, and launching a consumer product brand. In this episode of the Based Business Podcast, Parker McCumber interviews Kevin Schmidt, founder of STEEP, about building a yerba mate energy drink startup, validating a product idea, and overcoming fear in entrepreneurship.

If you're an entrepreneur, startup founder, or aspiring business owner, this episode breaks down the real process of launching a product and building a company from scratch.

Kevin Schmidt shares how he built STEEP, a zero-sugar yerba mate energy drink, despite having no background in beverage manufacturing, consumer packaged goods (CPG), or product formulation.

Instead of waiting for the perfect plan, Kevin simply started building.

He reached out to food formulators, developed the drink, built a brand, and validated demand through word-of-mouth sales.

This conversation explores the startup mindset, entrepreneurship lessons, and business strategies required to launch a successful product brand.

As Kevin explains:

“I have no idea what I’m doing… but that’s the first thing I say.” 

Kevin Schmidt Based Business Tr…

That mindset allowed him to detach self-worth from outcomes and pursue entrepreneurship with real conviction.

If you're interested in starting a beverage company, building a consumer brand, or launching a startup, this episode will give you a realistic look at the early stages of entrepreneurship.

Topics Covered

• How Kevin Schmidt built the STEEP energy drink brand
• Starting a beverage brand from scratch
• Product formulation and beverage manufacturing
• Validating a startup idea without ads
• Building a consumer packaged goods (CPG) startup
• The fear of looking stupid in entrepreneurship
• Why action beats waiting for the perfect plan
• Startup marketing and word-of-mouth growth
• Founder mindset and entrepreneurial persistence
• Scaling a startup energy drink brand

About Kevin Schmidt

Kevin Schmidt is the founder of STEEP, a zero-sugar carbonated yerba mate energy drink startup focused on clean energy and organic brand growth. Kevin previously worked in tech startups and now applies those lessons to building a consumer beverage brand.

About the Based Business Podcast

The Based Business Podcast with Parker McCumber interviews entrepreneurs, founders, and builders about how they started their businesses, overcame challenges, and built successful companies.

Episodes focus on entrepreneurship, startup strategy, leadership, and business growth.

Chapters

00:00 Fear of Looking Stupid
01:04 Meet Kevin Schmidt & STEEP
03:20 Risk Appetite and Responsibility
05:50 Opportunity Cost and Hustle
10:00 Early Wins and Word-of-Mouth Sales
13:54 Build Around Passion
17:05 From Money to Freedom
20:23 The Muse and Entrepreneur Ideas
28:55 Simulation Theory Rabbit Hole
34:09 Equivalent Exchange Mindset
41:22 How STEEP Got Started
44:45 Finding a Food Formulator
47:37 Building the Brand and Team
51:59 Lessons in Action and Humility
57:20 Monetizing the Podcast Studio
01:02:05 Scaling Strategy
01:06:04 Variety Packs and Sampling Funnel
01:16:30 Organic Social Growth
01:21:11 Final Takeaways

Keywords

entrepreneurship podcast 
startup founder story
how to start a beverage brand
energy drink startup
yerba mate energy drink
consumer packaged goods startup
CPG business
how to validate a startup idea
founder mindset
starting a business from scratch 

Transcript

0:00

You have to overcome the fear of looking stupid. Me not attaching my self worth to the success of this thing allows me to show up with more drive and more passion than I've ever had in anything else in my life. Yeah, I think that's one of the things that prevents people from taking action. I have a good idea and I'm excited about it. I didn't have a name. I didn't know how I was gonna approach it. I didn't know anything. The most important thing for me in my journey is how do I become a better version of myself than I was yesterday? But this is the first thing that it's like entirely my own thing. The point that I was getting to with NATO though, was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. And that's the first thing I say. Find something that you're passionate about. Find a problem in that area, that sphere, that niche, and that's what you go to work on, you know, every single day. It's really fun because there's like a big moment. Many entrepreneurs are paralyzed by fear. Something prevents them from taking action, whether that's the fear of rejection, the fear of the obstacles that they're going to face, and the difficulty of the journey, or they get stuck waiting for the perfect opportunity. I'm here today with Kevin and his superpower is just sending it. When you see that there's a need, when you see that there's something that needs to be done to make the world a better place, send it. Kevin, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are. Yeah, I'm sending it. I Well, that's, I mean, it's true also. Yeah. You wanna crack a steep real quick? Yeah. I couldn't wait. Sorry. I couldn't wait either, man. The, uh, the spoiler alert for you guys is that Kevin is the founder of Steep. Ah, that's good dude. OI haven't had a steep in a few days 'cause I'm kind of running low. My inventory can't afford. So you had to cut yourself off. Yeah. I can't afford product supply. Yeah, exactly. Um. Sorry, remind me the question again. No, just tell us, introduce yourself. Oh, yeah, sorry. For the listeners. For the listeners, um, for the listen for, for the folks at home. Yeah. So my name's Kevin. Uh, like Parker just said, I'm the founder of Steep. Um, I, yeah, I've kind of been an entrepreneur for the past. I don't know, like. Six, seven years or so. I've worked primarily in tech up until this. Mm-hmm. Um, I've had like modest success here in Utah. I'm originally from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Um, and yeah, I just love building stuff. I love being a part of kind of the early journey of a company. Sure. And have had co-founders and have been a part of like several pre-seed ventures. But this is the first thing that it's like entirely my own thing. Uh, I have great members on my team, but no co-founders per se, and it's just a super exciting time right now. So lemme let me ask you about your background a little bit. Yeah, sure. Um, 'cause in my opinion, it takes a very special person to be interested in entrepreneurship and then to continue doing it in multiple ventures, right? Like Sure, yeah. You've obviously, I think you have to be insane, but yeah. You, you've experienced a ton of failure. You experience some successes that make all the failure worthwhile, like, um, but most people aren't comfortable taking that jump into entrepreneurship because there's a sacrifice that gets made with that. You lose some safety, you lose some stability. Yeah. Right. So, so like you said, it takes somebody who's. Maybe actually insane to do this. What, what kind of things in your background maybe led you to this point? Yeah, that's a great question. Um, it's kind of funny 'cause I didn't grow up in a family with a lot of money. And so I think that like, you know, really feeds into it in a way where I could have seen myself going in a very other direction and, you know, going for something that's very stable, you know? Sure. And I have not gone that direction at all. But I think that also part of it's just due to my life situation. I think being for me, like a single guy, no kids, no wife, I've never been married, you know, I can, and having a kid and wife isn't an excuse to not start. Yeah. You know, well I'm over here. Yeah. You know, get married, have kids, you know, one day that'll happen for me, I'm sure. Um, but it hasn't yet and I'm not forcing anything. Right. And I think that for me, I. I have the ability to adopt more risk because I have way less responsibility, you know? And I think that for me, it doesn't feel like it exceeds my appetite. And I love how you phrased that, and I, I think that's actually a really important part to recognize. It's honest, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I just, I want to be somebody who, um, is really authentic about what I can shoulder and what I can't. Mm-hmm. And I think that entrepreneurs who get into trouble, um, are kind of dishonest with themselves about what they can and can't shoulder in that moment. I am, I'm raising my hand. That's me right now. I, uh, you got a lot going on right now, man. I've had, I've had, you know, this past six months, I've gone a lot into the, the thought process of saying no as an entrepreneur's best friend. Yeah. Because I said yes to way too many things. Um, so I, I wasn't honest with myself about what I could told her, and I actually hit a wall like a couple months ago, um, where I knew I had too much on my plate, and so I started dropping. It was like, uh, controlled failures. Okay. I, I knew what I was failing at and I was intentionally failing at those things so that I could have success in other areas. Yeah, I mean, life's full of trade-offs. Like my brother and I always say to each other, you know, you never get rid of problems, you just trade 'em. Hmm. And I think that's really true. You know, problems never go away. And if you are someone who thinks, oh man, if this venture gets to X place, then I'm gonna not have problems, or then I'll be happy. It's like, you're, you're missing the point, brother. Well, there's the, the concept of an opportunity cost with everything. Yeah. And, and I think I talked about it on a previous episode, even the little things. Aren't free, for sure, not. You think you're gonna go hang out with your friend on the weekends, drive over to his house, watch, watch a football game. That's not free. You're one, there's the actual like physical expense mileage on the vehicle, gas in the car. Sure. Right. Those kind of things. Maybe you're buying a train ticket, whatever, there's a cost, but additionally there's the opportunity cost. What are you sacrificing? What potential or possibility or outcomes are you giving up to go and do those things? Yeah, totally. I mean, I think about that all the time, especially right now actually.'cause I have a day job. I'm a chief operating officer at a AI company called Skipio, and we create voice agents for people. And you know, that's a whole other thing that we could get into. But like that's a really great venture and I'm really passionate about that. Mm-hmm. And then I get off work and I go home and I'm steep for eight hours. You know, I love that. And love, I could be doing whatever else, going on dates, you know, I. Admittedly, like, I'm not in the gym as much as I want to be right now because I need to sleep, and it's really hard to fit everything. Yeah. Um, but, you know, when I get off work, I'm going out and I'm fulfilling orders. You know, I'm driving around, I'm dropping off cans, I'm packing and I'm fulfilling. I'm doing it all. And, you know, working with my formulator and then looking at marketing, editing videos and, you know, I still find a way to like, you know, maybe watch some anime before I go to bed or something like that. But, you know, that's basically it. I really, uh, personal note, I, I love and respect that kind of hustle. I did the same thing when I started my first business. Um, I was working, I was gonna school at EVU. Okay. I was working kind of full-time, well, not quite full-time hours. I think I was doing like 35 ish hours a week. So maybe just under traditional full-time. Mm-hmm. In a warehouse, uh, as like a back office employee. Yeah.

And then after like 5:00 PM 6: 7:47

00 PM I would start doing my, like my building. Right. My, my business. And so it was like not uncommon for me to be sitting in a, a small little corner office or something at like seven, 8:00 PM waiting to get on the phone with like a manufacturer in China or something like that. Cool. And I, I mean, I just remember the, the relationship toll. Yeah. And you kind of touched on it like, you're not dating, you're, you're focused on growing this. And I, like, I am so empathetic, uh, to entrepreneurs who are in that boat right now because I've, I went through that, that stage for year, I mean, two to three years Yeah. Was what it took me. And, and part of that is why we actually do the show now was I tunnel visioned in, um, I didn't realize I could go learn from other people or, or get, you know, uh, better mentorship from people who had already done the thing. Yep. So I tunnel visioned in and I tried to do it alone. And it took me, took me a few years to build success that way. But in hindsight, I sacrificed a ton of relationships. Sure. And it wasn't intentional, but it was like, you know, how many times are your friends gonna invite you to go do something before they stop inviting you? Yeah. I mean, that's, that, that's so real. Um, and yeah, thanks for sharing that. I mean, I, I, I resonate with that and I'm also hesitant to like, um, really glorify the entrepreneurial journey. Yeah. Because I don't want people to get into it who, you know, who, who it's not for. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I'm kind of like weary of almost doing that because it's mostly just really boring by myself. Um, but, and I mean that in kind of the very layman's sense mm-hmm. Of boring. It's not boring. It's very fulfilling. Like, and I have a lot of fun by myself, like doing all of this, but I think, you know, to the observer, they're probably just like, oh man, that's a pretty boring night. I'm like, yeah. You know, but I had a lot of fun. Fulfilling orders tonight, you know? Yeah. Like last night I was fulfilling orders till 10:00 PM Well, and that's great. Uh, a great mindset, right? You find what you're looking for. Yeah. So if you're looking for fun, fulfillment, enjoyment, you'll find those things in your journey. Yeah. I think that the way that I try to view what I'm doing with STEEP right now, in particular, you know, every single day it's really fun because there's like a big moment, like literally every day right now, whether it's we come up with a new flavor or we nail the branding for the next can.'cause the can's gonna look like a little different in, in this next run. Mm-hmm. Um, or I hear back from, you know, a vendor that wants to carry steep. It's like really every day there's something and that's not gonna last forever. Sure. You know, there's gonna be days where, um, that's not the case and it's a lot more kind of steady, but it's so exciting and the hype is so real. When, like last night you and I were texting, right. And then, you know, I got. Linked up with that grocery store and mm-hmm. They're interested in me. It's like, that's so exciting to me. Like the smallest thing. Right? Yeah. It's, and it's so hype. Yeah. You keep the calendar full. If you're keeping the calendar full, it means you're doing something to move the needle. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm, and I'm, for me to be selling cans every day right now without having ran a single ad, and I've almost gone through my whole inventory for my first batch, um, just through word of mouth sales is so validating. And I mean, I've only done, you know, like a few grand in sales, right. But to do that in a month is like, oh, this is so exciting. Oh, yeah. You know? Well, it's proof of concept, right? That's exactly what this first batch was intended to be. And it's proven that, and you know, now it's about actually like locking and loading. Oh, yeah. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, it's about finding, uh. A lot of satisfaction with your contribution that day is what I'm like really learning from myself instead of saying, oh man, like, you know, when STEEP is nationwide or an international business and I have, and I'm doing, you know, like X amount of relationships with the vendors and crazy distribution, then I'm gonna be excited about it. It's like, no, like this is the exciting part right now. Yeah. You know? Oh yeah. The growth. Yeah. And that's what makes kind of, you know, the entrepreneurial journey exciting to me and what gives me the ability to, you know, to your initial point, send it like super hard. Yeah. It's because I love what's happening right now. That's great. I, um, I think back on my own, my own journey a little bit, and the most fun that I had in business was the zero to 1 million mark. Yeah. And that was definitely where I was the most involved. Mm. And then, you know, we grow beyond that. We start hiring the team, start building out more of the, the system. And necessarily as you grow, you become a smaller and smaller. Portion of the actual operation. And so it was like, I'm really excited to hear you, you talk about it like that because I know you're in that, that stage. Totally. And it's, it's so exciting and I don't want to paint the picture. Like I don't have people, um, with me like every step of the way right now. Sure. I have such an incredible team with STEEP right now. Um, and to be totally transparent, you know, we're, it's like it's all sweat equity and everybody is really laser focused on what it is that we're building and the stoke is just present and people that are contributing are best in class at what they do, and they just see the vision and they see the drive. I think that passion is, I mean we were talking about superpowers earlier. I think that passion isn't not a superpower. Yeah. Yeah. Like just to be passionate. There's so many people in this world who, um, take what's given to them and you know, I think it's harder for some people to. Reject that, you know, because they have commitments like families and these things, and they have to do stuff that, you know, maybe they don't really resonate with. Uh, and I think it's harder to reject, you know, like maybe a job that doesn't resonate with you when you have like a mortgage. You know what I mean? Sure. And so I have a lot of empathy with that, and I feel very grateful that my life isn't in like that situation where I can just fully dive into what gives me passion. Mm-hmm. And right now it's this, I'm a big believer that you should build around your passions. Mm. And I know that that's an area of hot debate in like the business social media sphere. Sure. Where, you know, I saw this one reel the other day where somebody was saying, the only people who tell you to build around your passion are the people who have already made money. Right. And I'm like, but how do you think they made money? Yeah. Right. Something about working in your passion is what actually allows you to overcome obstacles consistently. Right. If you don't care about what you're doing, if you're not passionate about what you're doing. Then you stop when you hit a roadblock or an obstacle. Totally. So I'm, one of my pieces of advice that I give to people pretty consistently is find something that you're passionate about. Find a problem in that area, that sphere, that niche, and that's what you go to work on. Because then you actually care about it. You give a damn about your solution, you give a damn about what you're actually trying to build, breach. And that keeps you going. Yeah. That's the fuel. Yeah, totally. Because if you're not super passionate about it, um, it's not gonna get your shower time is the way that I frame it. That's good. Good. It's like a really simple if then statement for me, um, and I talk about this with, uh, some of the people that I manage at Skipio, you know, it's like if you're really passionate about what you're doing, you're gonna think about it. You know, like, you're gonna get pillow time, you're gonna get shower time. Yeah. Because your boss can't say, Hey, when you're in the shower today, why don't you be thinking about X, Y, and Z? It's like, dude, that's shower time. Yeah. It's like. You know, they could be thinking about nothing. That's like, that's not your domain. Right? But when you're passionate about it, you're thinking about it. You're in the shower, you're think about you, you get shower time and shower time. I mean, there's like all those memes about shower thoughts for a reason, right? Mm-hmm. It's 'cause your brain's kind of in a different state and then you have these crazy ideas. You're like, oh yeah, what if we do that? You know? Yeah. That shower time is valuable and you don't get that if you're not stoked. For sure. For sure. You really don't. So let me ask, kind of going back to the, the you portion of this. Sure. Um, you, you made a comment about like you didn't really come from money or anything like that. Yeah. Um, that's something that I think a lot of, and it's not to say it's a prerequisite, but a lot of entrepreneurs who are very successful in the long run are the people who maybe have a hunger associated with not having a lot. In childhood or growing up. Yeah. Do you see maybe that as a, a fuel source for yourself? I mean, what was the, what was the childhood experiences like that maybe were the catalysts that drove you to this point? Well, I think when you go up, I, I guess I don't wanna paint my picture. I think that there's people who experienced much more difficult things in their childhood than I did Sure. To be fully transparent. Um, but I think when you grew up in a house where your parents were working like three jobs each, I got my first job delivering papers when I was eight years old. Mm-hmm. Um, and I had like three jobs in high school, you know? Um, so I've always been someone who's been working and if I wanted anything, I was something that like I had to pay for. Yeah. Um, and you know, you grew up in a house with a bank calling like pretty regularly, and you're like, oh, like, you know, you kind of figure out what's going on when you're a kid. Sure. Like when you're a teenager and you're like, oh, this is like not the best situation, you know? And, uh, I think that it definitely did give me fuel. You know, what's interesting is that, um, over the past couple years, I would say that my motivation has also really shifted too from being very money and monetarily focused mm-hmm. To being much more about, um, ways that I can just kind of experience freedom in a way. And I think that money gets closely, uh, tied to the potential of freedom, but I also know people who are a slave to money and they're super rich. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think that's just something that I've really noticed from myself. And although steep for me is something that I have tremendous confidence and like I have more confidence in this company than probably any venture that at least I've kickstart. Um, and I, I see there being like a real monetary like, outcome from this all. And the attraction's getting definitely indicates that it's going that direction. But it's not about the money. To me, it's really about Steve being a canvas where I get to like, just live my life. Sure. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it does. I mean, it's the, it's the format that, maybe a better way to to phrase it is, it's the, the key that unlocks the freedom for you. Sure. Right? Yeah. It one, it's a expression of yourself. Yeah. Things that you care about, your values. Um, the lifestyle image, like all of that stuff is an expression of you, I think. Yeah. And then subsequently, as you build it and it becomes a more successful venture, that's the catalyst for you to be able to have the freedom to do what you want do with the people you love when you wanna do it. Right. And it's not for me about, um, material things as much as it used to be in the past. It's much more about like what you just touched on. It's like doing the things like real kind of like experiences Yeah. With the people that I care about. Well, I think for like, for me. It's more, everything now is about the experience. Sure. Everything. Um, I realized a few years ago that my drive was not material things necessarily, although, like some people look at that and they're like, well, Parker, you already got cars. You gotta watch it. Yeah. Had nothing to do with that though. It's about the experience. It was always about the experience. I just didn't know it was about that for me. Mm-hmm. So, I, I recognize that like the financial success and business building, those were just the tools to leverage, to have the experiences that I wanna have. And I, I, for me, I wanna have every experience that I can have. Right? Like, we are on this earth for such a short period of time and I recognize that there is so much to do that will just never be done in a single lifetime. Yeah. And I think, you know, we're we, we. Listeners, whatever your religious beliefs are. My philosophy is that if we are not living our lives to the fullest, trying to learn to grow, to be the best version of ourselves, then you're doing a disservice to the life that, you know, God has blessed you with. Couldn't agree more, Parker so chase it. Yeah. You know. Totally. If, if you have a dream, I, I think you have an obligation to pursue the dream. Yeah. I don't know if this is true, but the other day I heard a story about Michael Jackson. Have you heard this story about like, how he would call people up in the, in, in, in the middle of the night? No. Okay. I don't know if this is true or not. Let's stick this with a grain of salt. Um, but apparently he was, you know, obviously quite an eccentric dude. Sure. Right. And, uh, people on his production team, like his studio team would get calls, you know, three in the morning or whatever. Mm-hmm. And he would say things like, we need to get in the studio right now. And, you know, they're thinking like, dude, it's three in the morning, what do you mean? But he's got the thought. No. Like I, I have an idea right now. And what he said allegedly is, no, you don't understand. If we don't record this right now, God's gonna give this idea to Prince. Oh, I have heard that. That's really good. And yeah, whether it's true or not doesn't really matter to me because I believe deeply in the concept of like the muse, you know? Sure. And how the ideas are being said to other people. I'll give you a crazy example. Okay. So steep, um, is a. Zero Sugar yba mate, carbonated energy drink. Right? And this is important to the story. And I started making this 14, 14 months ago and it took us, you know, a year to come up with a formula that was good. When I do the launch event for steep, I invited people on my network. Um, one of the people I invited was this girl that I went to college with and she works at Mixers, which is that hormone therapy. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, she's like a VP there and I was like, Hey, you should come through. And she goes, wait, is this your company Steep? And I go, yeah, you know, and our URL is drinks deep.ca. And she goes, wait, you own drinks steep.ca? I go, yeah. And she goes, that's crazy. I own drinks steep.com. I'm like, okay. And she goes, is steep, wait, is this a Yorba Mate energy drink? I'm like, yeah, and it's got zero sugar, it's five calories. And she goes. That's crazy. My husband and I, a year and a half ago, almost started an energy drink company that was based on Yorba Mate called Steep. And we just didn't do it. That's when I had the idea when I was starting it and that is like not lost on me at all. That's a real story. I'm not making that up. Yeah, that's crazy to me. Right? Try another one off for size. I get a, I call my manufacturer like four months ago 'cause I hadn't really heard from him in a little bit and I'm like, Hey man, like what's going on? Like, where's my product? Right? Mm-hmm. And I get a call from him and he goes, Hey man, I need to apologize to you. Um, I got you confused with another, with another one of my customers whose name is also Kevin Schmidt. I'm like, that's crazy. You know, like, I don't, I've never met another Kevin Schmidt in my life. He goes, yeah, they have another company. It's not a drink company, but it's called Steep. The guy's name is Kevin Schmidt. Wow. I'm. Like what? That's crazy are Yeah. What are the odds of that? And to me, you know, it's way too much of co of a coincidence, you know, kind of treading into my personal beliefs there. But that's just kind of evidence to me that there's something kind of in the water, so to speak. Yeah. Like there's an interconnectedness and ideas are being fed through that interconnectedness and you pick up on them or you don't. And I think that that's what if, I think that the, the times that I feel most connected, most present, the most alive here in this reality, in this existential plane are when I am like listening to that thing. And yeah, that's when I feel the most connected to what's going on. Have you ever read the book Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill? Uh, no. Not that one. Okay. Walk outta here. Pull up that Amazon machine. Okay. Um, get that thing coming. So you just touched on the core concept. Of this book. Cool. Where essentially there is a master intelligence, right. That you can access when you listen and you work with other people. Yeah. That's, that is the whole philosophy of like how this company was born, truthfully. Um, I to, yeah. I love that. I totally agree with that. It's a, it's a, a, a great read to be honest. I, uh, I recommend it to all of my, my coaching clients. I recommend it to everybody on the show or that listens on the show. Um, it, I think, sets the foundation for someone, for an entrepreneur, for example, to recognize the steps that they need to take, to collect information from this interconnectedness Yeah. That you've, you've spoken of. And, uh, find some clarity and guidance. And it's, I love that. It's a really interesting concept because it details how. Like the book was written in like the 1920s Cool. Details how all of America's most successful entrepreneurs were doing these things through cool interview and like, I mean, it talks about Rockefeller and Yeah, Henry Ford, the Vanderbilts and whatever. Yeah. All of them are accessing this, this master intelligence through listening and masterminds and things like that. And so I, I guess that's why I am personally, like, I'm so passionate about making that move in my, my businesses is like, how do we help more people? How do we access this like information and this higher plane of thought? So it's really, really interesting book. Definitely recommend it. That's super cool. Yeah, I definitely will check that out. Um, it's an easy listen, if you want to turn on an audio. Yeah. I'm much more of an audio book. I have like diagnosed dyslexia, so I have to kind of like walk that path a little bit. Um, how has that shown up for you in your career? You know, like listening to the, um, Rick Rubin calls it The Source. I don't know if, if you've ever read the Creative Act. No, I haven't. Oh man. Yeah. Lemme put you, I, I tell you, I'll walk out on that out here and I'll put it on the Amazon. Lemme put you on that. Yeah. I, um, so it, it's one of those things where like in hindsight I could see that it was there, I didn't know about it and wasn't trying to access it for so long. But then as I, I started to get into more like finding mentors, um, I recognized that they were all doing this thing cool and they were all getting together in their masterminds and their groups and all working together to serve each other in a higher purpose and help like. I could just see where that information flow comes from then. And so, um, for the last, you know, two or three years I've really tried to make a push into that world or that realm and recognize that there is a higher level of intelligence and knowledge in the, the world that we can get answers from if we just like faithfully commit ourselves to listening and learning. Yeah, man, that's, uh, that's amazing. I love that. You know, it's, dude, it's crazy that there's another Kevin Schmidt with a Steve, right? And I don't know what he's doing. He's not doing this. My, um, co-packer assured me, but it's crazy that that other couple was like, same name, same idea. And they bought the URL and they didn't do it. Why would they buy the URL if you're not doing it anyways? I mean, listen, how, how many times have you had an idea? Did you buy the u RL from them? Uh, not yet, but like, we're, we're talking about it, you know, it's exp the, the reason I'm using drinks ca I'll be fully transparent Sure. Is because I paid $11 for that.'cause I'm Canadian. Right. Um, and so I can buy Canadian domains, but I only ship stateside right now. So it's this 20. Why, like, I wonder is she trying to run up that, that, that price on you? I mean, I would just go for steep.com instead, but Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, I can't imagine that she bought drinks steep.com for more than 12 bucks a year. You know? I don't know. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. Yeah. It's, it's not a short domain. Well, like, I probably shouldn't name drop, but it's curious you brought that up because it's a pattern I'm seeing more in my life too, where like we have two people that film in the studio that have the exact same name and they do similar shows. Yeah. And I'm like. What are the odds? That's crazy, man. I, I called Bart one day 'cause I was going through billing, um, and it was like, shout outs to Bart. Yeah, shout out to Bart. We had, uh, like one of the transactions didn't go through or something like that. Okay. Like, it was just a do not honor code from a bank. So I called him, I'm like, Hey, can we have him reach out to their, he's like, oh, no, no. It's not that client, it's this other client, but they have the same name. I'm like, what? Anyways, that's wild. It, they're, they're, I think, yeah, you're really right. There's an interconnectedness in everything. Yeah. You know, and then the conversation pretty easily goes into like simulation theory and stuff like that, which is like, I don't know. I don't, I don't really care personally because whether you're in a sim or you're not in a sim, you're here right now, man. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a believer of simulation theory. Sure. I'll, I'll touch on it just briefly. This is my, my philosophy of simulation theory. Okay. I listen just because it's interesting and makes great social media content. It's crazy that every conversation I have that goes deep always ends up here. But yeah, go on. Maybe, maybe you subconsciously or leading the conversation that way. Yeah, maybe. Definitely. Simulation theory, are you familiar with the double slit experiment? Of course. Okay. So I think the double slit experiment is one of the strongest base arguments for simulation theory. Sure. If you're not familiar with the double slit experiment, essentially it shows that the world is rendering right as it's observed. And when I say rendering, I mean like a video game. You know, the game only renders where your character can observe when it does otherwise it would take way too much computing power. So it's essentially the same concept, right? So we think about that, boom, put a pin in it in a simulation. Boring simulations get terminated. Yeah. No one is bored in the world right now. There is a ton of craziness going on. Yeah. It does feel like there are simulations happening. Yeah. Like, you know, there's a lot of craziness happening, so. I, I don't know. I view those things and, and I don't think that simulation theory is mutually exclusive with like God or higher power. I actually think those things go hand in hand. Sure. Very much so. So I think all those things can be true. I think that we could literally be living in a higher power simulation. Mm-hmm. Just, uh, you know, different religions teach, you know, you come to earth, you have your, your tests, your obstacles, you overcome. Yeah. You, you know, become a better version of yourself. You return to live with your father in heaven. Things like that. I'm like, all of those can go together in my mind. That's how I, anyways. Yeah. Sym theory is crazy. I mean, yeah. The double set experiment, you know, that photon behaving differently. This is kinda where it comes from. It behaves differently whether it's observed or not observed. Yeah. And that kind of, you know, creates a lot of conversation. And I'm sure there's a physicist like sitting on the other side of his listening as like. Dude, that's not at all what the double silk experiments is, but that's how I understand it. Right. But it's, it's how I understand it. Yeah. Anyway, it is crazy. But I think that, you know, whether it's a sim or not, you're here. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right now. Well, man, now we're gonna get into some trouble here philosophically. Someone's gonna come at me in the comments. Yeah. Okay. I'm also an objectivist. Okay. Like I'm Rand Objectivism. Elaborate what that means to you. Reality is real. Okay. And that while your perception and my perception might be different, heard there is an objective truth. Sure. Like hydrogen does have one proton. Yeah. Like objectively. Objectively. That's true. Right? So, man, a lot of like philosophers mm-hmm. Abhor that as like the most ugly form of. It's kind of like anti philosophy. Correct. It's anti philosophy to some degree. Yeah. But that in and of itself is a philosophy. Sure. Um, but when you get into, like, how do you reconcile those with simulation theory? I mean, like, we've kind of got way off track here, but you've got way off the deep end. It'll make some great content. Um, I the simulation can still have objective truths too. Yeah. Can I tell you one of the, we're just speaking of truths now. Like Yeah. There is a truth that I feel like is, um, very real for me and it's funny. Um, I'm like gonna really show my nerdy side for a moment. I love it, dude. I know that you're a nerd too, so like, oh yeah. You know, I got my, my kosky ring on right now. Yeah, of course. I see the red. I've always got some NI dunno if we can show the cameras might not be able to pick up. I, I actually, I hid red clouds in every room in this recorded studio. Yeah. I've seen them everywhere. They're everywhere. Yeah. You're a big Nja fan. Oh yeah. Um, okay. Full metal outcomes. Brotherhood. Okay. Right. You, you've watched, I haven't finished you. Okay. But you've like, I'm familiar. You're, you're familiar. Yeah. Okay. Um, it's one of those shows I can, I can watch, my wife doesn't watch it with me though, so then Sure. I can only watch it when she's not around. Because you're going through one piece right now, right? Yeah. So I'm, I'm, man, I'm in like four sh four shows right now. That's Bold. Um, the one that we're watching together simultaneously Yeah. Is Black Clover Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard good things. So I'm watching all of the Full Metal Alchemist series. Okay. Not brotherhood solo. Well, I, I'm, I haven't got to Brotherhoodhood. Okay. I'm, I've watched Brotherhood episodes. Sure. Sporadically. But yeah. You know, like, I'm, I'm, I'm, so then that's what sent me back to be like, okay, I've gotta get into, because Brotherhood was on, um, they, they added it to like, uh, Netflix and Hulu and like all the, the mainstreaming services carried it. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, this is really cool. I love the animation. I need to go back and get the backstory for everything. So I'm going down the full Metal Alchemist train right now. I'm also, I don't know, man, you're 120 episodes. You, you're so deep. It's crazy. And NATO sent me down all this path. Yeah, of course. Um, yeah. Yeah. Okay. The law of Equivalent Exchange. Okay. You're familiar with this? Okay. The concept that, like within the show, I, we could like have a clip over top or something like that, but, um, bar, get us a clip, bar, get us a clip of the equivalent exchange. Okay. So. An alchemist can only change like the state of something. Mm-hmm. If there's something in exchange to change. Right. So it could be something simple, whereas like, you know, you are igniting fire. It's like, well there's air and there's molecules and I'm just gonna ignite them. And that's what's changing, right? Mm-hmm. But then it gets tricky when it's like, well I wanna transmute this, this like, you know, carpet to being solid gold. It's like interesting. Well what are you offering in exchange as to happen? Mm-hmm. Right? Kind of like the universe, like is to your point, like objectively going to require something of you. Yes. In this moment. And I think that is fundamentally true. Oh, I agree. Um, a hundred percent. I agree. Um, if you want something like this outcome, you know, there is a law of equivalent exchange that must be fulfilled in order for you to achieve that outcome. So what are you offering? And so in the show, this kid. Ed tries to like reincarnate his mother. Right. And it goes terribly wrong. And his brother loses his body and you know, ed tries to bring his brother back and, and he like offers up his arm to make that happen. And you know, this is like crazy nerd talk that we're ha that we're talking about here. But the philosophies are fundamentally true in that like, if you want a really great outcome, you're gonna have to offer something. Yes. Really great to get there. So I use this quote all the time. Nothing is given. Everything is earned. Sure. If you want to have the excellent outcome, you have to put in the work, the sacrifice, the effort to achieve that outcome. Right. Whether that's in your practice of alchemy or in your business. Same. Same. Yeah. You have to put in the sacrifice. There's no easy way to accomplish anything of significance, in my opinion. Now, it might become easier as you learn and you mature and you progress, and you become a better, higher version of yourself. But that doesn't mean that there's less sacrifice. It just means you've become more equipped to handle the sacrifice. Mm. Yeah. I agree. God, team. Yeah. Okay. Let's go back to business a little bit here. Sure. Yeah. I think that that's a very, actually a, a really important business concept. See, man, there's parallels to everything. I love w equivalent exchange. I love it's real. It is real. It's real. I mean, it goes hand in hand with like real physics, right? Matter can't be created or destroyed. Yeah. It change. It can only be changed. Yep. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred. Yep. Right? Same. Same. Those principles apply to everything you do in life and the world and business and as above, so below. Yeah. Yeah. I think about like nato. Okay. I have, I haven't partaken, so I can't Yeah, you've gotta partake in nato. Yeah, it's, uh, that's another one that my wife and I did. So I watched the first 300 episodes in NATO by myself. Okay. Sorry. Sidetrack. Um, and then my wife, she was like, child of show, like, whatever. And then she starts seeing some of it, like as I'm watching it, she's like, like reels cooking or something. Okay. Yeah. So she starts picking up more and more on it. And then I started, notice she's coming up to like the couch while I'm watching, and she's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that happened. Oh. Like, then she got into it. She's like, okay, I just gotta start watching it. So then this is the other side of like, every couple I, I hear like. A girl's watching, um, like kinda those trash TV shows like Love Island or something like that. And the husband just kinda like looking the back seek Alive of Mormon wives. Sure, yeah. Something like that. And then eventually they're like, oh my gosh. You like waiting until like watching in the background while something happens. Your wife had the same experience but with anime. Yeah, with anime. Yeah. Respect. That's what got her into anime with me was, you know, we, I was watching nato, she got into nato, then she started watching NATO from the beginning. So then I essentially finished and then went back and watched with her, um, which was great. But then she's like down the anime train too. Love it. I guess the point that I was getting to with NATO though, was like, the whole premise of the show is about overcoming your obstacles and becoming a better version of yourself. Right. And I think that there's a very significant parallel to entrepreneurship or even just to being a successful individual in whatever you're endeavoring to do. Yeah. You're constantly putting in the work. A lot of it is going unrecognized by the people around you in your community, your peers, your friends, whatever. They just don't see the sacrifice or the struggle the same way. And eventually you become someone of significance. The whole thing with Naruto is like, he wants to become essentially the most powerful ninja in his village. So he has to grind every freaking day because he was a little like orphan kid with no inherent talent or skill. Yeah. So it's this whole process of like, how do I overcome my obstacles? How do I become a better version of myself? Yeah. And that archetype is seen like, you know, very many places. I mean, Naruto is a shown in, right? Yeah. And that means young man in Japanese. And that's like what every shown in really comes down to. It's like, well, I wanna be a better version of myself, hero journey, and I'm gonna hero get there. It's hero journey. It's the hero's journey. Um, and I think entrepreneurship's a great parallel to that. Yeah. Right. Like, like you mentioned, it's maybe not for everybody. But I think it is the best way to become a better version of yourself.'cause it forces you to grow in so many areas all at once, right? Mm-hmm. You think about starting your entrepreneurial journey and you talk about, you know, steep and, um, you've done all your sales word of mouth so far. Yeah. That means you're building relationships. Mm-hmm. That means you're talking to people. You can't do that hiding in an office by yourself. No. You gotta get out there, right? You gotta get out there. Yep. So, one, you're overcoming fear of rejection. Totally. Two, you're building stronger relationships. And that's just that area, right? You think about, okay, real, you're solving problems when it comes to the manufacturing and supply chain. Um, like actual composition of the drink. I, I, what's the proper term of that formulation formula? It's the formulation, right? Yep. So there's like all of these different areas that you have to develop yourself in to solve, to overcome. It all happens so rapidly. Yeah. So that's where I, I'm like, I get really passionate about entrepreneurship because at the end of the day, the most important thing for me in my journey is how do I become a better version of myself than I was yesterday? Is that fitness? Is that, uh, business, is that my capability helping others? Like, it doesn't matter. I just have to get a little bit better every single day and entrepreneurship forces that Yeah. It's a real refiners fire. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Yeah. I, and I think that sometimes, like I said earlier, it gets like over romanticized. Mm-hmm. Too. Um, to the point where people get into it who probably like, maybe shouldn't be into it, or like they're, they have different callings, you know what I mean? Yeah. Um, but for those that feel like the call of the wild, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It can be a real, I mean, it'll show you up for sure. So can we talk about the business a little bit? Yeah. Let's, let's dive in. Yeah. Share as much or as little as you want when I get to this point of the show. The framework is really, or the philosophy behind it is how do we help an entrepreneur who's just starting out? Yeah. Someone who's interested in starting a business, doesn't know how to start a business, doesn't know where to begin. Um, I can definitely weigh in on that. Yeah. Side of things. It's, it's just helping others. So, sweet. If you don't mind sharing a little bit about, like, yeah. How did you start steep? What does that process look like for you? Mm-hmm. Um, and then what's the operation kind of look like? How do you, how do you, um, translate that to somebody who wants to start? What advice do you have? That kind of thing. Yeah. I love all those questions. Um, sorry, I just dumped a ton. No, that's great. I mean, I think that the easiest way is just kind of a walk through, like how we got to where we're at right, right now. Yeah. Um, and kind of going through there. I think that, uh. You know, back to the earlier point, I've had this idea for three years. Mm-hmm. And I only just started executing on it like 15 months ago. Um, so that kind of speaks to how long it was like eating at me. Right. Yeah. And I'm glad you beat Prince to it. Yeah, I've rest in peace. Rip Prince, you know, one of the greats. Um, yeah, prince would RIP Prince, he would've loved Steep. Um, yeah. So I had this idea, you know, I loved Yma Mate and in college I had a couple roommates, um, who. Like, you know, one of the parents was from South America and so there was always yba mate in the dorm. And you know, back then we were drinking it with like a gourd with a silver straw. And I'm sure you've seen people drink it that way. It's like the very, that's the traditional way to, uh, drink yba mate. And I love it that way too. Um, but it's obviously not convenient and you know, you can't really take that with you, like skiing or to a yoga class or something. Right. Um, I guess you could, that would just be like, it would be really awkward, really bold. Right? My gore tipped over and you might be that balanced. You might be that guy. Um, but yeah, so I had this idea and it just kind of kept eating at me. I'm like, well, I'm a tech guy, you know, like I work in tech and that's where I've seen, um, all the success in my career so far. And then one day I was like, maybe I'll just, uh, maybe just kind of see if I can find somebody who wants to like, you know, make the drink with me. Just kind of start there. I knew after kind of just. Talking to some people that I would need a food formulator, like I had learned that much. Mm-hmm. And I guess to even identify that that was the next step, it was just like, really, I don't know, playing around with Chad, GPT and like Googling stuff. Sure. To be like, well where do I start? It's like, well you probably should start by like making something. It's like, okay, cool, I I could do that. Um, you know, and I kind of broke some rules. I probably should have started with like market interviews and like talked to people and done all that. But to me, I just wanted this drink because I had been drinking Y mate in college and then I went to go buy Yba mate at the store in more of a canned form. And all I saw were those yellow cans that have 30 grams of sugar in them. And so I bought 'em and I tried 'em, but they still tasted like grass. And I'm like, this kind of, this is cheeks. I don't like this at all. Um, and there's like a 200 calories in this drink. Like I might as well just drink a Mountain Dew 'cause it tastes way better. Doesn't taste like grass, you know, but then that has tons of chemicals in it. It's like, what am I doing? Um, so I just started DMing. Food formulators on LinkedIn straight up. Mm-hmm. I was like, you know, I've had, I have a good idea and I'm excited about it. I didn't have a name, I didn't know how I was gonna approach it. I didn't know anything. I was just like, I just started DMing people and I said something along the lines of like, actually, oh, my fault over there. Nevermind. I, I was looking at the message this morning, so I remember what I said to people. It was like, Hey, I have an idea for a Yorba Mate drink. I'm looking for somebody to partner with in, in developing this. I'm an entrepreneur. I've been working in tech for X amount of years. Um, I'm wondering if you'd be open to taking a call with me. That's it. And I sent it to like, you know, probably 25 people, um, in the area that I was at. This was like last September. Um, and one of them got back to me. And his name's Mark, and he became my formulator. And if all 25 had gotten back to me, I still would've chosen Mark and that like he is, he's a pro, he's an expert. He's, he's a genius when it comes to this stuff. And he understood exactly what I was going for because he is very passionate about his health. Yeah. And we're around the same age too. And he's never been able to pair with somebody who had a great vision for what they wanted. And so we just got to work and it took us a year of developing before we ha had anything we wanted to, like even talk about to anybody. Mm-hmm. I had been working, I, I worked, I worked on this for a full year before I told like anyone. Really. Um, and it's not because like I was building in stealth mode, I kind of think that that language is sometimes like overused and a little cringe. Sure. You know, it's like you're kind of trying to like get seen for being stealthy. It's like, I mean, I just didn't have anything that I felt confident showing people. Mm-hmm. You know, I didn't know if this was gonna be real or not. Um, and then we started getting flavors that we were kinda like, oh, this is interesting. You know, and then we were working on, well maybe it like pairs with this and maybe it's this and maybe it's not carbonated, maybe it's just, uh, powder and, you know, going through all these different things. Uh, and then the steep name came to me randomly and I was driving around one day, like, literally just like back to like the source. Mm-hmm. You know, I was driving and just was just like steep. That's it. Oh my gosh. That's it. Notcha, GPT. Yeah. You know, just came to me from the source by the way. Like, this is just a note. Don't overuse AI in like developing each brother your business. Like everybody is creating their stuff from the same place. If it's just all ai, like you have access to like reality in the universe that you're in. Yeah. And that source is real. It's not, that's not like woo woo, possibly that's real. You know those examples I gave of my name, the other person with drinks steep.com, like those are real examples. Like that is not a coincidence. No. You know, and well, and especially not like in your immediate circle, right? Like those are people that I know anyway. Those are people in proximity who could have real, made the same thing happen. Right? And they're not. And they're not. So we started working on this and you know, we made a really clear, um. Decision on like, no one's getting paid until this is real. Yeah. And I think that that's really important and that's not a good fit for everybody. Yeah. I, I had designers kind of come in and, you know, like one of them's even come back who were like, Hey, I can't contribute to this right now, but maybe in the future. Yeah. And I didn't take any offense to it, like to be, and I think that's a really important thing. Basically position. Yeah. It's like they just couldn't shoulder that at the time I could. So that's what was happening. Mm-hmm. Um, and so we just started, uh, kind of like tinkering on it. And then I worked with some designer friends. Um, my friend Heather did the RAM logo. She's amazing. She's a, um, special effects supervisor for a studio in Vancouver. Shout out to Heather. Huge shout out to Heather Batan. Yeah. Amazing. Um, actually shout outs to like the whole team. Mark, Mike. Uh, max, Malachi, we guy name some more. Dude. Like these people are amazing. Dan Bowman. What a freaking legend. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anybody else I'm forgetting. I don't know. Like the whole team is so amazing. If he forgot, you comment angrily below. Exactly. Um, oh yeah, shout outs Kate. She just joined the team. That's super exciting. Um. But yeah, Heather did the logo. Um, she's a special effects supervisor for a, a movie studio in Vancouver. Uh, she worked on the Dune movies. She's amazing. Like best in class. I feel so blessed. The people that have come to support have been truly, um, tremendously talented in their own arenas, and I think that speaks to the idea of being real and authentic because the universe is just providing abundantly. It's, I've never experienced it like this before and I've been a part of companies that have been very successful, but the amount of just like flocking Yeah. That I've experienced. Just like people raising their hand and be like, dude, how can I help? Like, this is crazy. I've never experienced that before. If uh, you go back to the concept, you find what you're looking for. Yeah. If you assume that people are interested in helping you, you will find a lot of people who are willing to help you. Totally. I mean, I have so much confidence in this product too. I'm just like, why wouldn't you love this? Well, and that's the other part is you're confident, right? Like yeah. Self-confidence inspires confidence from others. I delusional to a fault, I'll fully acknowledge that. Um, it's necessary. It really is necessary. So it's not fault. Yeah. Delusion is probably one of my greatest, um, strengths. Now's the super power. Yeah, for real, honestly. Uh, but yeah, and then I started reaching out to people that I kind of knew were in food. Mm-hmm. Shout out Steve Clark. Um, I got my MBA with him. Um, he had been at Kodiak Cakes and then I think he was at. Uh, just ingredients after that in kind of like an operations capacity. Sure. And he got me hooked up with, um, you know, people to talk about like co-packing and manufacturing. Yeah. And I have approached all of this very transparently saying like, I have no idea what I'm doing. And that's the first thing I say when I sit down with somebody who is from my, who's in my industry. Because I don't want them to think that I'm like this person that doesn't want like their wisdom. I want all of the wisdom. Yeah. And I approach all of it with a learner's mindset. And I'm very, um, aware that I know nothing about this. Mm-hmm. Like, I sat down with Associate Foods last week and the first thing I said, I sat down. I was like, listen, Bruce, this guy's name is Bruce. He's a, he's a good one. I'm like, listen, Bruce, I don't know what's I, I've never been in a grocery store for a drink. Mm-hmm. You tell me what I need to do to make this successful. He's like, cool. Let's talk about it, and he's willing to tell me everything. You know what I mean? How was the conversation with Associated Foods, just outta curiosity? Yeah. It was positive. It was positive. Yeah. So insider tip. Sure. I, I connected you with Abel. Yeah. I'm excited. That's, uh, tomorrow I think where we're chatting. Okay. So yeah, Abel's father was formerly the president of Associated Foods Pro Tip. Very connected. That's crazy. If that's a, if you make a good connection there, that's a setup, man. I'm stoked on that. Yeah, Abel. Uh, yeah. I'm looking forward to that conversation tomorrow. Um, yeah, that's, uh, that's super exciting. Yeah. Associate Foods, they seem. Interested. Uh, I mean, I'm leaving here and I'm, I got more meetings today. Sweet. Um, on, on State. But yeah, I think I gave like a really fragmented, probably terrible example of like, you know, how to like do the entrepreneurial journey. But I think my biggest thing that I've learned for myself is just being really curious, acknowledging that I know basically nothing. And being incredibly honest every step of the way. Honesty is the only thing that I have complete control over my life. I love that you phrased it like that too. Um, a couple things that you've touched on that I'm, I'm just gonna highlight for the viewers in case they missed this. So one, you started taking action, right? Yeah. Even when you didn't have a perfect plan, you recognized you didn't have a perfect plan and sent, didn't have a name, flavor. I was like, I wanna make Yorba Mate without sugar. And you, you just started with messages. Yep. Right? You sent, you sent dms on LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. And that's what started the journey, essentially. Yeah. So one, you took action even when it wasn't perfect. When you didn't have a perfect outline. I think that's the first step for a lot of these people. Second, you are practicing a concept called ontological humility. Okay. And you don't even know you're practicing that concept. Yeah. I dunno what that is. But essentially, ontological humility is the recognition that somewhere between your perspective and my perspective is the actual truth of the situation. It's the recognition that you don't know everything and you're willing to go in and learn from the people who might know more than you. Yeah. You're coming at the problem with humility. I love that. And the last part here is you're building the relationship through a willingness to learn and the honesty that it takes to have that approach. I think if nothing else, like the, I mean obviously the episode's not done yet. Sure. There could still be some more really big gold nuggets, but if you're listening to this or watching this episode, I would take those three things and that becomes like the framework of how to start something. From a very solid foundation, built on integrity, built on trust, built on relationships. Like that's the secret man. Yeah. If you can, if you can master those three things. You can just go and do whatever you want to go and do. It does feel like a cheat code, candidly, like you just me being, me being willing to look like an idiot. Um mm. That's important. I'm super open to looking dumb. Um, 'cause growing up I had undiagnosed dyscalculia and dyslexia and I was the last person to learn how to read in my class, last person to learn how to do my multiplication. And so I know what it feels. You were prepared from a young age. I really knew what it felt like to feel stupid.'cause I felt stupid for a lot in my life. Um, and then I was able to learn a couple languages later in life. And that experience of learning those languages, Russian in particular, man, was really humbling. Mm-hmm. And it really taught me how to be like, man, I don't really know actually how to, how to structure this sentence, what that word is. And you just look stupid for a, for a long time and you have to be very vulnerable. You know, we touched on it at the start of the episode. I think that's one of the things that prevents people from taking action and not just taking action, but from learning from growing, from becoming the person that they're intended to be. Sure. You have to overcome the fear of looking stupid. Yeah. If you can do that, you can get over the fear of rejection and everything else that's subsequent, but you just have to be comfortable looking dumb for some period of time. Yeah. While you get better at something. Right. It's really easy to be bad at something on day one. It's really hard to be bad at something at year 10, so you just have to start Totally. You have to be comfortable looking. I don't want be comfortable looking stupid. Yeah. I don't, I I think that humiliation, I think it was, uh, what's like his name? Austin Butler. I saw him on a podcast and he was like, uh, embarrassment isn't under explored emotion. And that's interesting bars. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, that's, that's, that's good stuff. And I love that. I, I try to live that. Um, to me, and I don't always do the best at this, but I really try to not posture in front of people. Sure. And I try to be really conscious about, um, me showing up authentically and honest in that moment with that person. Because posturing is like the antithesis of honesty. I'm like putting on a mask and I'm trying to appear a certain type of way so that you think a certain thing about me. Right. And that's just ego. That's, uh, that's just pride. And that is, um, that's gonna be like a bit of, um. A bit of a repulsive thing to people who otherwise would help you. Yeah. Um, posturing is like, if you can, if you can navigate your life with less posturing, I guess I'll speak for myself. The more that I do that, the more that I feel like really connected to my brothers and sisters in the human race. Dude, you said bars. I'm like, man, this guy is spitting fire right now. Uh, yeah, it's just, just speaking for myself. That's my, I'm gotta have you back on show, just to go into the philosophies of all this, bro. We could go deep. I'm in. I am. This is, this has been a really fun one also. Dude, when's the podcast? Just, just episode by episode of like one piece coming out. That's what I'm really interested in, you know, so I actually side thought I love having the little side thoughts. This is like the most ADHD podcast, like guest you've probably ever had in your life. You know, I, I bought this podcast studio, um, as a way to essentially subsidize my own podcast. Right? Cool. Uh, I was spending a ton of money right on content production and buying equipment and building my home studio and all that stuff. And, uh, we had the opportunity to buy the studio here. So we get in, there's obviously clients, they rent the studio space out that helps subsidize the cost of everything, right? Um, so it was like this concept of I'm just trying to monetize every area of my life. And, uh, I'm, I'm thinking about, well, what are the potentials here now? Sure. I could do a show for everything. Yeah, totally. I could do, I could do an anime podcast, I could do a sports podcast. Probably would be fire. Honestly, I, I just come in and film something every day. Like I have the potential and ability. It's like, do I, do I have the willingness to sacrifice that amount of time to go and do those things. Right. And what's the trade-offs? Right. Right now I'm trying to grow my, my coaching business a a lot. I'm trying to grow my, my, the studio clientele a lot. You got kids. So if I'm in here filming every day, I'm sacrificing the, the time that I would otherwise be doing, attracting clients, lead gen sales calls, any of that stuff. Yeah. Um, which might not be a bad thing. Maybe the studio replaces all of that. Sure. But it's, it's like I love that you're, that's where I'm maybe grappling personally right now. Yeah. Just to be very honest and transparent. Love it, man. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the only way to go about life in my opinion. I think the, the last thing you said there is like, oh man, maybe it replaces that. And that, that openness for things to just like die is what allows things to live too. Oh, bars right now, I do like that. That really is how I see it. I'll be totally transparent. Steve could die tomorrow and I would like not feel bad about it because I've shown up every single day that I can and given everything that I have to this. And if like it's not meant to be, then it will just not be. And it's that simple. And because I've given everything that I can at the moments that I can, like, there's nothing to feel like, there's nothing to have misgivings about. There is a great wisdom in there. Um, it's not for me to dictate whether something is successful or not successful. It's for me to show up. With everything that I can in the moment. So this is something I, I try to embody. Cool. And I'm not always great at it, but it's, it's that if I'm gonna put my name on something, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. Yeah. I want to do work that I can be proud of. That doesn't necessarily equate to permanent success. No. But it just means that when you're in the moment, you're going to show up fully. You're going to be completely honest about giving your best effort. Yep. And if you just do that, I find that generally speaking, you're gonna be more successful than people who don't. Yeah. I think again, and there's the openness that like, you know, this may or may not like find traction. Sure. And that's totally okay. And not everything is meant to find traction. Dude, I love how, um, it's not nonchalant, but how like at peace you are with the reality. Some things don't work, and that's okay, man, I, if, if we had like, you know, the day a lot of people struggle with that day. I mean, I've, that's something that I've struggled with in the past and it really, it's been the last two or three years that I've kind of maybe grown or matured into the point where I, I am starting to accept that. Mm, where I'm starting to recognize everything doesn't have to be my way. Things can fail, life will go on. It's a new opportunity. One door closes, another one opens, that kind of thing like. Totally. I mean, like, yeah. I could get a little more with you. Like, we're all gonna die. Right. And like, like you said, the words permanent success earlier and like, I would maybe like push on that a little bit in the sense that like, nothing is permanent, man. Yeah. Like, uh, like, like everything that we're surrounded by is like going to eventually like, not last. And so you might as well just like put in what you can in, in, in the moment. Right. Um, well, and let go over things that don't serve you. Yeah. Like go of the things that are negative or that hold you back, which allows you, you know, we talk about opportunity costs a lot, which allows you to show up in the ways that do matter. Right? Yeah. Um, like I don't wanna make it sound like I'm like, yeah, you said the word nonchalant. Like, I don't care about this company being successful. It's like, man, I have Well, and I can tell that's not No. I, I have so much passion behind this. Yeah. And so much drive and me not attaching my self worth to the success of this thing allows me to show up with more drive and more passion than I've ever had in anything else in my life. Yeah. And I mean, that is like the superpower that I feel like I I'm carrying right now. I love it. Can we talk strategy a little bit, please? Yeah. Okay. I probably need, I mean, like, let's talk strategy for me. Like, 'cause need, let's do it. All the help I can get. Yeah. So, um, typically how I structure the show again, uh, we're trying to help people who are interested in starting business, who maybe they, maybe they get an idea from this, maybe they get a concept. So like very free flow. Ask any questions you want to ask. We'll, we'll mastermind, like I said. Cool. This is, let's tap into that infinite intelligence together here real quick. Love, dude. Um, and, and maybe people listening, you know, they get, they get some good value outta this too. Cool. Right now you've been mostly word of mouth. Yeah. Where, what's the next step for steep? Like, what are you, what are you doing to, to grow the brand and the business? Totally. That's a great question. So, and what do you need help with to grow the brand and the business? Like, let's just get into that. Yeah. I mean, my biggest, I feel like my, my biggest blocker is. Really time for sales to be perfectly candid. Um, and so I'm having conversations with people that I'm close to who have been really great salespeople. Mm-hmm. And being like, I need help to like, you know, boots on the ground, like go into places and you like, do the outreach to the businesses that I wanna be doing work with. Um, that's like a huge blocker for me right now, because at the same time I'm working with our formulator to work on our product roadmap. Like our product roadmap right now has 42 different SKUs on it and being ready to execute on that from a marketing and branding perspective. Because these retailers, they don't want a single SKU product like, or business, sorry, like on their shelf. They want multiple SKUs. Sure. And so I need to like step up and meet that moment. Um, and that's like a really big focus right now. So we have seven other flavors in development right now. We have three other different product categories that are. Adjacent to what I'm working on that I can't really speak to right now, um, publicly, but super exciting. And you haven't seen a product like that on the market yet, and that's taking a lot of time, um, away from maybe some of the other things that are like equally as important Okay. And need to be addressed right now for the business to even get to the point where I can fulfill on that product roadmap. Are you familiar with Dr. Ben Hardy and the Science of Scaling? No, I'm not familiar. So another book that I, I definitely would recommend Good audio book too. Cool. Um, I got to hear him speak at a mastermind in Mexico last summer and he talks about the actual scientific process of scaling a business. Cool. Reverse engineered through study of tons of businesses and entrepreneurs. Right. And essentially it's the, uh, one of the prerequisites to scaling. Simplicity. Yeah. So I hear, you know, you're talking about, well, we've got seven different, uh, skews and flavors in for sure. And I'm like, man, that gets complicated quick. Yeah. Um, and I, I'm thinking, you know, I guess that's necessary. Like you said, you know, associated foods or, or maybe like a grocery store, they wanna have a multi skew for sure know line in there. Yep. They wanna give options to people you come in, but historically speaking, those are low margin Yeah. Businesses, you're, you're, you're making money on volume there. Yep. And it's, it's difficult, I would assume to scale rapidly. Yeah. So then I think, how do you change that model? Like how do you actually take what you've got now and scale it to a multi seven figure business? Just to, okay, so you gotta change how you do it. So maybe the grocery store model isn't the best for scaling a drink right off the bat. Now I'm not saying don't do that. I'm just saying like, how would you change the model to grow much more rapidly? Yeah. I love that you're touching on that. I just, I'm thinking No, it's great because, you know, I'm, I'm thinking the same things. So, you know, earlier mentioning like our product roadmap and things that I know I need to deliver on in order to like get in on the shelves that I know that I want to be on. Mm-hmm. Um, that's kind of like one of the things that I come up against and what I've boiled it down to is I need a variety pack of steep, like right away. Mm-hmm. And so right before I walked in here, and that's probably pretty important, I mean, I think about like this morning I get up, I have my Celsius, but my Celsius doesn't just come in a single flavor pack. No, it's not. I the variety pack. Yeah. You know, I get that ply a vibe. I get that, that fantasy vibe, you know? Totally. Yeah. Which is, uh, you're drinking vibes, you know, and we won't dive too far into that. Um, but yeah, I, a variety pack is, is, is, is the next step. And hopefully by the time this comes out, you know, it, it'll be in the wild. Um, right before I came in here, I was on the phone with my, um, manufacturer, literally about this. Sure. Like in the parking lot, like right before I, I walked in. That's the next step is I need two more flavors in a variety pack that I can sell online. Um, 'cause I have friends who very abundantly are saying like, man, I got all these like TikTok, um, influencers who are actively looking for new products to, to pedal. Uh, and they would love to push this. Yeah. But nobody wants to buy, you know, a single flavor for like. 24 drinks or even a six pack when they haven't tasted it. Right. Yeah. That's too much of like a risk to show. It's immediate ask. It's a big ask. So, and especially buying online, you pay shipping totally. Right. Ups the, yeah. Yeah. It's like the risk associated, the risk of like, oh man, I might hate this drink. Right. And it's not for everybody. I'm not gonna say that it is. Um, but yeah. So we're working on these two other flavors that we, we boil it down to question for you, that's the next step. This is maybe a dumb question, but just a question. Yeah. How many people try it and then buy a pack after they try it? Like what's the maybe percentage of if they get a sample, they Sure. I would probably say right now, like 35%. Which, so maybe a question for you to do the math on Yeah. Is like, how do you get somebody maybe, maybe like a, a simple, a simple easy funnel type thing. Yeah. Landing page. It's like, Hey, gimme your email and your address. I'll send you a free cam. Yeah, totally. I mean, I did that yesterday with a guy who reviews it. Drinks up in Leighton and I shipped 'em one off this morning. So I'm like, if you can just ship, you know, maybe you send a hundred free cans out. Yeah. And you get 35% of people to buy a case. Right. Are you profitable? Probably not at that. But if I can get my volumes up and my cost down, which is one of the next steps, but if you get, for me 35 people to buy a case of 24. Right. And they do a review or they make a review video or something like that, Uhhuh does that in, I mean, I'm thinking about how do you increase the distribution and the volume immediately. Right. Like the, and the distribution that I can control. Yeah. That is really interesting. I know that, you know, when you, you and I got lunch last week, you're maybe not profitable for a little bit on that. Right. But like if that 35 that buy a case all make a positive video review and they distributed, I mean, that's crazy. And maybe you get another 35 from each of them. It's like a trickle down. Yeah, totally. That's a great idea. Yeah. I'm just curious. Just spitballing. It's interesting. Yeah. I think that, um. Yeah, that's something that we could definitely try. But to answer your question, like yeah, I'll send you a free can. All the, all you gotta do is gimme a review. That's all I ask in return. Hey, uh, this can, what's it costs you four bucks for the can plus shipping and handling is gonna be another five, six bucks. So you're 10 bucks a person and that's an immediate loss. Yeah. Right. You send, you send a hundred out. That's a thousand dollars loss, give or take. Um, and that, that sucks upfront, but I'm just thinking like, if you get a hundred video testimonials now of somebody of these influencers, it's worth more a grand. Yeah, yeah. Totally. So I'm thinking about how I do my branding in my, my own, like the coaching business right now, right? Mm-hmm. Um, and I, I recently re-listened to, uh, Russell Brunson's Inner Circle Coaching on, um, creating a Movement. Right? Okay. One of the things he talked about a lot was the swag. Sure. Giving some PR boxes type of thing, or it's like the T-shirts. Yeah. Yeah. And the hoodies. Exactly. And like giving people something that they can rep Totally. That also makes them feel like they're a part of the movement. Mm-hmm. So I'm thinking, how do you do something similar? You're giving out cans and you're asking for something in return, so then those people feel like they're helping you. Yeah. So they feel like they're belonging, supporting, contributing, and they're getting an experience that's been thus far exclusive. Right? Like not a ton of people have tried steep yet. Yeah. They get to be one of the first people. To try and review this energy drink. That's an exclusive experience and you position it like that. True. I'm, anyways, I'm just, no, I like that. Just spitballing here. A couple things I've been trying to do is, um, I'm big on stickers. I grew up mm-hmm. A, a kid surfing on Vancouver Island and I, I used to work at a surf shop and I, man, I just loved stickers. I just loved like plastering my surfboard with stickers. And so I have tons of different steep stickers. Mm-hmm. And every single order gets lit. More than they probably should. And I think that's a cool experience. You know, whenever I had that experience with surf brands as a kid, I got a bunch of stickers in my yard. I was like, this is so hype. Yeah. This is so sick. So giving you away stickers, uh, this afternoon I'm meeting with my merchandise guy and doing exactly what you're talking about. You know, like to potential vendors or to influencers or anybody that I think is worth like, you know, a a t-shirt. Like I can do that. Yeah. That's not too much. And I would to shoulder like, Hey, you go meet with, you know, somebody from Associated Foods or from a grocer or something like that. Leave' em a t-shirt. Take 'em a T-shirt. Yeah, totally. It's just a good experience though. Totally. The good experience keeps also my super sick. So. Yeah. I mean you saw it at the launch event. Like, I sold out at that event, like people were buying my merch. Like, 'cause it's it's good stuff. It's good. Yeah, it's good stuff. And that's the whole thing too. It's like anything worth doing is worth o overdoing, you know what I mean? Definitely. And if you're gonna deliver on the merch, deliver on the merch. Make it good. Make it something that you wanna wear. You know, it's something that you wanna drink, wanna hold. I'm trying to recognize that. Because there's a shift in the model for me. Right. Okay. I, I was doing, uh, e-comm had a lot of success there. That's largely like, it's always profitable. Yeah. If that makes sense. I start with a presale model. Excuse me. We sell the product, we generate the revenue, we take the revenue, we go make the product, then we deliver the product. Yeah. So low risk with a presum model like that. I was talking to, um, oh, it was, it was actually, uh, Russell Brunson and, um, I'm talking about like, I run paid ads. My paid ads get me a 5, 6, 7, 8 row ads, give or take. He's like, I run paid ads and they're, you know, a 0.8. I'm like, you're losing money on your ads. Yeah. But he makes all the money on the backend. Right. Okay. So it's like you have a, a low ticket, you know, um, book or an info product or something upfront that's collecting the email address, those kind of things. And then he makes the money on the backend when he gets 'em into a, um. Software or a coaching program or something like that. Right. But the journey to get them there is filled with value add and positive experience. And like, that's where like once he collects your email to like, you go get a book or something for, you know, free plus shipping. Yeah. Then it's, Hey, you just got a free shirt in the mail. Yeah. I'm like, okay, there's a loss, but there's a loss on the ad, there's a loss on the book, there's a loss on the shirt. So he's, he's just continuously losing upfront, but on the back end, because he is put invested in that, he gets high ticket sales and connections and like that's where the money is for him. Yeah. So as I move more into the coaching business, I'm trying to learn everything that I can learn from these people that have come before me. And I've had a lot of success in that. And, um, it's like I have to get comfortable with the idea. Not everything is going to be profitable on day one for sure. And that's okay. Are you, are you familiar with, um, this is like a little, um, kind of like, not challenges that thought, but it like, kind of like pulls up the thread a little bit. Are, are you familiar with the theory of Good Money and bad Money by Clayton Christensen? No, I'm not. Okay. It's a sense that like, um. There was this company that was started by Motorola, like back in the early two thousands. Mm-hmm. It was like mm-hmm. A satellite phone company. Do you remember this? Like, and then there was like this, there was like this ad where Al Gore like took a phone call in New York City and was talking to somebody on top of a mountain and it was like M and Hillary's grandson or something like that. No. Anyway, I don't remember that. But I mean, okay. It was like this whole thing of like this really big push to make, you know, a satellite phone that worked an anywhere in the world. And Motorola was like really invested in this. Mm-hmm. And they put up tons of capital upfront to make this thing work, like in, in the beginning, like egregious amounts of money. Sure. Uh, and they were really impatient for growth and far too patient for profitability. And there's a lot of examples, kind of like in our society where people pursue that model where they're. They're, they're just growing for the sake of growing. And I think that they can justify that example by like, oh, well look at like Netflix and Amazon and all these other like blue chip companies. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, and they use kind of like these outliers in a way to justify what they're doing at, at their local kind of like smaller business. Yeah. And then it doesn't work and they run outta money and they have to close shop. Right. That's a great point you're bringing up. And so what, what Christensen talks about is that you should really be, um, impatient for profitability in the beginning, and then as soon as you achieve profitability, you need to be really impatient for, for growth. And you need to flip your strategy. Yes, Dr. Dramatically. A hundred percent agree. And so this is what you're talking about with your, kind of like e-commerce model. You guys experience profitability out the gate. You know, you, you get these orders that come in, they're pre-orders and it's. It's profitable. Right? And so the next step is, well, now we have all this inventory. It's like, cool. You need to grow now. Yep. Right. And so we need to kind of switch the strategy and be there. And that's what we're trying to do with STEEP right now, is actually I'm profitable on the majority of cans that I sell unless I go wholesale to a certain type of vendor. Sure. Um, and that is quite different for a company like mine. So how are you selling, uh, right now direct to consumer? I mean, you said mostly word of mouth, right? Yeah. Do you have any, you're not running any ads or anything like that? Uh, no. And it's because I'm really impatient for profitability. I need to prove to myself that how are you generating organic traffic? Uh, you know, like we're posting on social media often. Mm-hmm. Do you get sales from that? Uh, yeah, I do. I would just do, I do take that volume to the max. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like we're your personal page, the steep page? Mm-hmm. I'm doing stories every day of what you're doing. Yeah. I'm doing stories and posts of like fulfilling orders, like all of that. Totally. And I'm just taking it to the max and I'm probably putting, if this is me, like 25% of posts that I make a call to action with a link to buy something like that. Yeah. I mean that's very similar to what's going on right now. Sweet. Um, and then also just, and I would take your best performing posts and boost those. Right. I haven't even done that though. Get to follow you. Yeah. And then every time somebody follows you set up a many chat or something like that with an auto DM that's like, Hey, thank you so much for the follow. I really love that you're here. Right. My name's Kevin. Thanks for the support. Here's a link to get the free drink. All I ask in return is that you give me a video testimonial. When you need your job, you do a video. Yeah. And then send it to me and I can use that on my page. Dan. Let's do that. Um, Dan, he wants to do that. Dan oversees, uh, our social media. He is, he's awesome. Shout out to Dan. Shout out to Dan. Another one. Yeah, another one. Another one. Um, yeah, that's a great idea. But yeah, we've just been generating sales through word of mouth and also just, I'm like, I'm not really pandering, but people are like, my, my friends are like introducing it to their friends.'cause they're just stoked. Yeah. You know, like they're just, well look here, they wanna support something. Take this Dan, take this and cut it up and use it. This is legitimately a good product. Right. I made a connection for you this week because I'm a fan of the product, right? Mm-hmm. Um, one I like yerba mate. Anyways. Yeah, I really like Ginger. I mean, one of the things, so it's kind of funny. I drink ginger tea very regularly. And I was drinking yorba mate type drinks in the morning anyways, as kinda like the appetite suppressants a little bit of caffeine. Like, so these things were already part of my life and my routine. Something that I dislike about a lot of energy drinks. I won't drink any energy drinks that have sugar added. I already just don't do that. And I don't like things that, you know, you know, when they're like artificially sweetened and very chemical heavy. Yeah. And like you drink it and it feels kind of sticky in your mouth and stuff like that. Hate that. Yeah. You get none of that with this. Right. So here's the promo, man. It's a clean energy drink. It feels clean. I mean, yeah. And, and it already has the flavors and the, the kind of benefits and the things that I'm looking for already. Right. So like, here's a no brainer. Yeah. And that's what people, I mean, you've been a homie. Like, basically since we met at dinner that one night, like, well, like six weeks ago. Um, and you know, like I'm, I'm experiencing that. Like people are just, you know, pumped about what it is and so they're happy to share it. Well, that's the beauty of it. You make a good product. Yeah. You do a good thing. Yeah. People like good, begets good. Right. And I also, I mean, I think that there's a lot of different ways to go about like, you know, there's like a thousand different ways to skin a cat, which is like a horrific visual, but, you know, um, you could go about this a lot of different ways. In the way that I went about it was I just wanted to make something that I would've bought that I was extremely proud of. Yeah. Like, I made this for me, like, to be completely transparent. Well that's, that's all of the best products and services are that way. Yeah. You see a need, something that you wanna fill or su solve so you create something for you. And other people need it. Want it too. Totally. And then when you get the idea and you feel confident about it, just send it. But I'm outta steep now, so forgive me for transitioning to my water. Oh yeah. To the Sanel. I'm a big Sanel fan. I mean, that's great quality products. I do. Uh, that pelegrino I like, I like sparkling Waters is like a appetite suppressant type stuff. Cool. That little bit of carbonation and stuff just makes feel full a little bit longer. Totally. I'm a big carbonation fan. Some people don't like it. Uh, I personally am a fan and, and for those that don't like it, we have, you know, the Stir and Powder six that are gonna be coming out, um, this year as well, which I am pretty excited for.'cause most of the, the yerba mate that I drink already Yeah. Is essentially just a stir. Yeah, totally. I get the little stick, open it, pour it, mix it in. Boom. Yeah. I mean simple. Right. Um, but for those that kind of want, like that carbonation, a little buzz. I mean, that's what I like. So dude, you've provided a ton of value for me and my audience. Oh man. I'm just here to learn. What can I do for you? How can I serve you and your community like you're already doing? For me personally, I feel like you're already doing so much, Parker. I feel like you're making introductions, you're being super generous. You, you know, letting me be here in the first place is super cool of you. Um, I'm just grateful to be here, man. Yeah, thank you for sharing of like, you know, your time and your resources and I mean, for anybody that kind of questions is just like watching the show and doesn't really know you. It is really palpable, like the passion you have on like. You know, helping people and being generous, like it's real and I really appreciate it, man. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yeah, of course. I'll send you an invite. I got a mastermind on January 24th if you're available. Yeah, we'll bring you out. It's gonna be great. Great. That sounds awesome. I got, um, sorry, this is my self plug. Yeah. I, I got Adam Ivy, I'm flying him out from Florida. He's a YouTube coach. Cool Dude. Has built multiple million dollar YouTube channels. He consults on big brands, YouTube channels, how they grow and develop sick. I'm like, dude, come, come out and uh, and learn with us on that. It'll be a great one. Yeah, I'd love that. That sounds awesome. Sick man. Yeah, man. Dude, I'm just here. Okay. Thank you so much.