The PricePlow Podcast

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/dan-lourenco-ghost-lifestyle-2023 After winning Brand of the Year for the third straight time during PricePlow’s 2022 Supplement Industry Awards, we invited Ghost Lifestyle’s Dan Lourenço back onto the PricePlow Podcast for his fourth appearance on the show. We recapped 2022 with him, and then got Ghost’s 2023 plans underway. Inside, we talked about what a great year Ghost had, especially with Ghost Energy blowing up. But being in every major category, what’s the next big thing for Ghost to get into? For a long time, they’ve been working on a functional food — maybe we’ll get to see it in 2023, but only if it’s ready. Dan also gave us some heads up on Ghost Legend V3, which will have a few unique twists. Ghost Gamer is likely to get some minor change as well. They’ll be leaning heavily into wellness, with their sports nutrition lineup and proteins very well squared away. Hilariously, Dan gets caught drinking a black can in the video… and it turns out to be a “fake” product we think they should release! Find out what it is inside! Video: Watch Dan talk about Ghost Lifestyle for 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IUBxykYV7g Detailed Show Notes: Dan Lourenço #4 on the PricePlow Podcast (0:00) – Introduction (01:42) – Dan’s background in the supplement industry (03:48) – The challenges of starting a supplement company (06:29) – The evolution of the supplement industry (09:16) – The story behind Ghost Lifestyle (12:33) – The importance of branding in the supplement industry (14:21) – The role of social media in building a supplement brand (19:24) – How Ghost differentiates itself in a crowded market (23:11) – The importance of ingredient transparency (25:07) – The challenges of ingredient transparency (27:35) – Ghost Lifestyle’s product development process (32:05) – Ghost’s plans for 2023 (34:27) – The future of supplement regulation (37:13) – 2020’s impact on the supplement industry (40:20) – Ghost Legend V3 Pre-Workout (41:20) – Ghost Lifestyle’s approach to innovation (45:15) – Ghost Lifestyle’s approach to marketing (50:05) – The importance of community in the supplement industry (57:16) – The importance of staying true to your brand’s values (59:50) – The future of Ghost Lifestyle (1:00:20) – Ghost Sparkling Water?! (1:03:15) – Dan’s advice for aspiring supplement entrepreneurs (1:06:15) – Rapid-fire questions (1:08:32) – TMNT Collab Returning Conclusion Dan Lourenco shares his insights and experiences in the supplement industry, from the challenges of starting a new brand to the importance of building a strong community around your products. He also shares his vision for the future of Ghost and offers valuable advice for aspiring supplement entrepreneurs. Listen to our other Podcasts with Dan Dan Lourenco & Ryan Hughes – Ghost Energy V2 | PPP #035 Dan Lourenco: The State of Supplements in Esports | PPP #041 … Read more on the PricePlow Blog

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/taylor-knox-nutramedia During the 2023 Arnold Sports Festival, we had the chance to sit down for a long conversation with Taylor Knox of NutraMedia, a premier branding firm that’s well known for their incredible label designs. Taylor came up through NutraBolt / Cellucor, worked on the first round of Glaxon labels, and is now running his own business with a team of artists who are building some of the best labels in the business at NutraMedia. This conversation was fiery, talking about everything from Taylor’s history in the industry to his plans for a documentary and highly-specific label printer technologies that make some labels stand out from others. This is a must-listen podcast for any PricePlow follower, especially if you’re an industry insider looking for some insights on branding and labeling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_2KUAzWn88 Show Notes: Going to Brand Therapy with Taylor Knox Detailed Show Notes Coming Soon Where to follow Taylor and NutraMedia Taylor Knox on LinkedIn NutraMedia on LinkedIn NutraMedia’s website: NutraMedia

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/elan-sudberg-alkemist-labs In early March of 2023, we hosted Elan Sudberg of Alkemist Labs on the PricePlow Podcast. Alkemist Labs is the place you go to get testing done on botanicals and mushrooms — they are even federally licensed to test psychoactive substances. They can be considered “plant and fungus cops”. In this episode, Elan educates us on the importance and challenges of botanicals testing, covering technologies like HPTLC and DNA testing and how to appropriately test new substances. We get into some of the market trends and challenges that arose in 2020, and then head into the psychedelic space, discussing cannabis, psilocybin, ketamine, the fentanyl crisis, vaping, and far more. Finally, we ask what Elan would do if he were made emperor for a day, and he gives a pretty detailed answer that’s indicative of the problems he sees in his corner of the world. Great episode, we’ll definitely have him back on in the future. Detailed show notes are below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2DIJ02qfqo Show Notes: Talking Testing with Elan Sudberg of Alkemist Labs (0:00) – Introductions (2:15) – Testing Botanicals and Mushrooms (3:30) – DNA testing (7:10) – Testing Example: Cordyceps (10:30) – What is the main concern right now? (15:30) – Why is there so much discrepancy in the testing industry? (18:30) – Have you had to pioneer your own reference material? (21:30) – What if you don’t have any background on an ingredient? (24:30) – Ingredient companies with new ingredients (28:00) – Trends from the Testing Perspective (31:20) – Psilocybin (35:30) – Psychadelic therapy, mostly ketamine (43:30) – Fentanyl Crisis (48:30) – Mystery powders (50:40) – Vaping industry (55:00) – Elan as Emperor for a Day

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/todd-spear-katie-emerson-nutrition21-085 In February of 2023, NutraIngredients-USA held the Sports & Active Nutrition Summit USA in San Diego, CA. This three-day event features expert presentations, panel discussions, and networking opportunities for everyone in the active nutrition industry. Colloquially referred to as just “Summit” to industry insiders, this has become one of the most high-powered networking events in the industry. It’s filled with both business leaders and nutritional science experts, providing a perfect cross-section for PricePlow’s followers. We maintained tradition by recording another podcast with the Nutrition21 team — Todd Spear (Sports Nutrition Category Leader) and Katie Emerson (Manager of Scientific Affairs) — a sponsor of PricePlow and the Summit. This is a follow-up to a previous PricePlow Podcast episode (#075) from SupplySide West 2022, and continues the conversation forward. Katie tells us about the presentation she delivered, and the team dives into hot industry topics and Nutriton21’s well-known dietary supplement ingredients like Nitrosigine, nooLVL, Chromax, and Velositol. You can watch on YouTube below, or listen on your favorite podcast app in our audio feeds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4AwUGKfTzI Todd Spear & Katie Emerson #2: Detailed Show Notes (0:00) – Introduction (1:45) – Katie Emerson’s Presentation for Nutrition21 at Summit West (4:30) – Leading industry ingredients using the “gold standard” (6:00) – Todd’s supporting formulation (8:15) – PreRace – Do Endurance athletes want pump? (9:00) – The shift from sports nutrition to active nutrition and lifestyle (11:30) – ProSupps Hyde at Walmart – Mass consumer (FDM) (14:30) – It all started with less efficacious products… (15:45) – Interest in Mechanisms of Action (18:00) – Formulating for the 5 million (21:45) – Velositol on Howard Stern (25:00) – Todd’s N=1 Experiment with Velositol (30:00) – Chromax: The Chromium Workhorse (33:00) – The Placebo Effect (40:45) – What is an “average person” for a study anymore? (49:00) – Katie’s presentation: products that cross categories (51:00) – Lustriva (skin care ingredient) (56:00) – Closing up and general conversation

https://blog.priceplow.com/industry-news/nmn-fda Mike gives the situation report on the FDA vs. NMN, reading his long-form article titled NMN, FDA, and the Supplement Industry’s Fight for Its Life as it stands through February 20, 2023. This should get you up to speed on the situation the dietary supplement industry finds itself in, where the FDA has decided to pull a New Dietary Ingredient Notification (NDIN) for reasons unrelated to safety – something that is not granted in any law or regulation. You’ll learn about the New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) process (which is a notification, not an approval), GRAS (generally recognized as safe) affirmation, DSHEA 1994, and the biochemistry and health importance NMN — which is quite literally just a B vitamin (and a rather powerful one) that’s found rather commonly in nature. We also get into David Sinclair and the Joe Rogan Experience, although they’re rather irrelevant to the legal side of this case. Follow along on YouTube or read the article at https://blog.priceplow.com/industry-news/nmn-fda

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/david-dodrill-arms-race-nutrition If you’re active in the sports nutrition industry, then you’ve undoubtedly met — or at least heard of — David Dodrill of Arms Race Nutrition (ARN). He’s the man in the van, driving across the nation to retailers, gyms, and everything in between to spread the good word of the Arms Race. Arms Race Nutrition recently won the 2022 Breakout Brand of the Year in PricePlow’s 2022 Supplement Industry Awards. They had a phenomenal year with many great releases, upgrades, and flavors. From what we’re seeing so far in 2023, ARN will be in the discussion for brand of the year — if nothing else, they’ve made themselves a consistent brand to watch. A lot of this is in part of David’s hustle. He’s taken it upon himself to get ARN’s supplements into the hands of consumers nationwide, and he’s done a spectacular job of it. David leaks Harness Evolution formula on the Podcast In this episode, we discuss David’s backstory, get into the new Harness Evolution formula (where we were able to tease the formula first), talk about new Foundation Bars coming, and finally get into an RTD that’s in development! Great conversation with a great man — check it out below: Show Notes with David Dodrill of Arms Race Nutrition (0:00) – Introductions (9:10) – Bodybuilding (11:55) – Arms Race Breakout Brand of 2022 (20:45) – Story of the brown paper labels (24:38) – Cigars at Caesar’s Palace (28:08) – Harness Evolution (42:20) – Beta testing (44:45) – Pre-workout formulations and influencers (47:30) – ARN going forward (54:40) – Involvement with other brands (59:25) – Harness RTDs Follow David and Arms Race Nutrition on Social Media: David Dodrill on Instagram Arms Race Nutrition on Instagram David Dodrill on LinkedIn Big thank you to David, Doug Miller, and Julian Smith for having David on and allowing PricePlow to be the place where the formula’s announced!

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/scott-dicker-spins In late January 2023, we sat down to speak with Scott Dicker of SPINS, a wellness-focused data technology company that provides retail consumer insights and analytics, with a focus in the natural, organic, and specialty products industries. Gathering Market Insights at SPINS Scott is their director of market insights, and has a special love for sports nutrition products, as he’s a long-time user in the category. We first met him at SupplySide West 2022, where he and Ben both gave presentations in the Sports Nutrition’s Rebound and Regrowth session. When we needed a quote about the growth of collagen over the past few years, we called on Scott to provide it. This led to us inviting him onto the podcast, which was a great conversation about data, trends, the economy, energy drinks, and some of Scott’s own personal predictions for the coming years. On the record: Scott answers the call for collagen data To support a claim made in our recent Ingredient Optimized ioCollagen announcement, we asked Scott to talk to us about collagen’s growth. He replied with the following: “Collagen continues to expand it’s reach, both in protein powders as well as in functional food and beverages. When looking at protein powders, collagen now has the second largest market share on Amazon, only behind whey protein. While sales and unit both stagnated on Amazon this past year, brick and mortar sales grew by almost 24%. This is especially impressive since units also increased by double digits. This separates collagen from most other categories where sales growth was largely driven by inflation and rising prices. Collagen has really benefited from the diversity of merchandising opportunities that retailers are providing, often found in both the beauty and personal care section as well as supplements. I expect collagen to have another strong year, even in this uncertain economy.” – Scott Dicker, Market Insights Director for SPINS The above interaction then led to this podcast episode: Show Notes with Scott Dicker of SPINS (0:00) – Introductions (4:40) – Collagen data (9:35) – Does SPINS data help brands as well as retailers? (14:10) – How does SPINS identify upcoming trends? (16:40) – Direct-to-consumer channel (23:05) – Shrinkflation and stick packs (26:20) – Is the hydration category growing? (37:40) – Channel strategies in Walmart (40:00) – How has widespread information affected data? (52:35) – Is overall caffeine consumption going up? (56:40) – Paraxanthine is coming for caffeine’s marketshare (1:03:00) – The return of nicotine? (1:08:50) – Creatine going mainstream? 1:19:40 Is ashwagandha peaking? It took off in 2020, but Scott does see more modest growth for ashwagandha. It’s switching more from supplement status to functional foods. That capped off quite a great converation! Follow Scott and SPINS on LinkedIn: Scott Dicker on LinkedIn SPINS on LinkedIn

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/kaged-mindset-launch On January 23, 2023, Team PricePlow was joined by Team Kaged to discuss the Kaged Mindset launch. This episode is special because PricePlow Nation gets to meet two new faces: Aaron Heidebreicht (Chief Commercial Officer) and Brian Rand (Co-Founder and Product Developer). We’re also joined by Darin Decker, who was in Episode #058 discussing the brand’s renaming to Kaged as well as Episode #047 about navigating the supplement industry. Formulation Extraordinaire Brian Rand Steals the Show But the big story here is that we finally got Brian Rand to come and show his talents, and show him he did. PricePlow followers may remember him from our 2017 interview titled An Interview with Brian Rand: Kaged Muscle’s “Executioner”. All this time, since 2014, Brian has been the formulation and flavoring brains behind the brand. So when we got to dive into the creation of Mindset (filmed live on the PricePlow Discord), this episode became the “Brian Rand show”, and we’re glad it did, because he’s a phenomenal formulation talent who clearly goes above and beyond when testing supplements. The conversation is below on video and in our audio feeds (subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast with your favorite podcast app), and also be sure to sign up for our Kaged news alerts before checking out: Show Notes: Brian Rand, Team Kaged, and the Mindset Nootropic Launch (0:00) – Introductions (0:50) – Kaged doesn’t enter categories unless they can do something special (1:30) – More isn’t better for nootropics (2:45) – “Test, Don’t Guess” (5:00) – Caffeine and caffeine-free versions in Mindset (6:15) – Darin Decker buying the competition (8:15) – Introducing Brian Rand (9:30) – Did the userbase help with Mindset’s formulation (12:30) – The shift from Kaged Muscle to Kaged (15:15) – Aaron Heidebeicht (18:15) – Mindset doesn’t use novel stimulants (27:00) – Money back guarantee (28:30) – Kaged using 10 grams of citrulline in Pre-Kaged Elite (34:15) – The novel ingredients in Mindset (37:45) – How to Sell Mindset in Retail Stores (41:30) – Kaged Omega-3 Fish Oil is Back! (47:00) – What’s Kaged’s Biggest Product Gap now? (Protein Bar!) (49:00) – Try a protein bar 9 months after its creation… (52:00) – Mike wants a Kaged Magnesium supplement (55:00) – Discord Giveaways (56:30) – Brian Rand’s Doing it Right (57:50) – The Kaged Flavor Systems (1:00:15) – New Kaged Whey Protein Isolate Coming! (1:01:15) – The Kaged Pre-Workout Options (1:07:30) – Thank you Kaged and Brian Rand! You can follow Kaged at @Kaged on Instagram, but for you business-minded folks, don’t miss Kaged on LinkedIn as well! And as always, stay tuned to PricePlow.com/kage… Read more on the PricePlow Blog

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/jason-budsock-animal-080 In early January of 2023, we kicked the year off right by hosting Jason Budsock of Animal at Universal Nutrition on the PricePlow Podcast. Many know Jason for his two decades at Animal – He’s JDawgXL in the forums and on Instagram, and is the Vice President of Products at the company. In this discussion, we talk about Animal’s legendary past, the incredible product launches over the past year (see them on our Universal Nutrition news page), and what they have coming for us in 2023. We reminisce about The Cage, and Jason explains how they were the original EAA supplement, released in the early 2000s after following two studies published in 1999 and 2000. Some changes are coming to Animal Pak, a new value Whey Protein is on its way, and far more. Show Notes with Jason Budsock at Universal / Animal (0:00) – Introductions (4:30) – 2006: Animal Flex and Animal Omega (5:15) – The Animal Brand (6:45) – The Legacy of @UniversalUSA on Instagram (7:45) – Animal was the original lifestyle brand (10:00) – Animal provides an experience (13:00) – Flavor technology over the years (14:45) – Universal manufactures its own supplements (17:30) – Product development: listening to the customer base (20:30) – Some future product hints (23:15) – Old school but still ahead of the curve (25:30) – The Universal / Animal Demographic (28:00) – THE CAGE (38:30) – Bodybuilders and Powerlifters (40:00) – Where does Animal move forward? (43:00) – Any product leaks? (48:00) – Responding to 2020 (51:30) – Animal Nitro: The original EAA supplement That ended the conversation, and it was great catching up Jason! Stay in touch with Universal Nutrition and Animal: Instagram: @AnimalPak and @UniversalUSA TikTok: @OfficialAnimalPak YouTube: YouTube.com/@animalpak Jason Budsock’s Instagram: @JDawgXL

It’s that time of year again — time for PricePlow’s 2022 Supplement Industry Awards. Mike and Ben sat down to review 2022, and then got into a batch of awards similar to what we did in the 2021 Supplement Industry Awards. 2022 brought some great new ingredient innovations, but also came with some heartbreaking tragedy. The industry mostly broke away from some of the issues created in 2020 and 2021, but also dealt with ongoing issues such as supply chain difficulties and price increases (especially for protein, creatine, and citrulline). Once again, most players who went big in 2022 were already well-established before 2020, but there are definitely a few new movers to keep your eyes on for 2023 and beyond. This is posted as Episode #079 on the PricePlow Podcast. Video and audio versions are below, with the details after that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itcS-3g1KYM (0:00) – General 2022 Discussion (10:25) – 2023 MVP of the Year (Lifetime Achievement Award) (18:00) – 2022 Innovator of the Year (32:30) – Product of the Year (34:10) – Brand of the Year (48:40) – Breakout Brand of the Year (56:00) – Brands to watch for 2023 (1:03:30) – Protein Powder of the Year (1:06:55) – Pre-Workout of the Year? One we’d particularly like to highlight for its accessibility is Raw Nutrition CBum Thavage. It’s an excellent “daily driver” pre-workout formula that’s reasonable in both ingredients and price. It’s not over-powered or under-powered, it’s in that goldilocks zone. Our favorite flavor this year was their Ghost Legend Cbum Thavage Miami Vice Collab, although Myprotein put in yet another incredible The Pre-Workout Flavor, this time with their Mike and Ike Caribbean Punch flavor. What was your favorite pre-workout of 2022? Because we left this one a bit open… That wraps it up — as always, subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on your favorite platform. Next up is our discussion with Jason Budsock of Animal Pak / Universal Nutrition!