The PricePlow Podcast Supplement Industry Thought Leaders

Quite a bit has happened since Episode #068 with Matt Karich, the enterprising founder of Soul Performance Nutrition. He’s gotten deeper into ultra-endurance sports, and has dropped a few incredible new supplements.

So we brought Matt back on to talk about his latest endeavors, getting the official catch-up from over two years of progress.

The two major product launches covered so far this year are Soul Performance Nutrition’s Nova Immune Renewal and Nexus Peptide Complex. This brings us to talk about three specific ingredients, colostrum and lactoferrin (which make up Nova) and PeptiStrong (which stands alone in Nexus).

Peptides, Milk Proteins, and Simple Sugar are Back in Style

Along the way, we also get into our returning love for a simple ingredient known as sucrose, but also talk about the joys of other carbohydrate sources like honey. As Matt trains for his next 100 mile race in Northeast Ohio, he’s going to need those carbs and far more.

We also talk about his incredibly-designed magazine issues that you can find on Soul’s website, linked below.

Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify, or find PricePlow on iTunes or any RSS-enabled podcast app. And of course, don’t forget to sign up for our Soul Performance Nutrition news alerts.

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/matt-karich-soul-performance-nutrition-135

Video: An Inside Look at The Vitamin Shoppe’s Brands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJQdHUq1Psc

Detailed Show Notes



* (0:00) – Introductions

* (4:00) – Lactoferrin

* (10:30) – Colostrum

* (16:30) – Preparation for Burning River 100

* (23:30) – The Meditation of the Run

* (29:15) – Reconnect with Real

* (39:00) – Carb Sources for Endurance

* (42:15) – Work / Life Balance

* (48:15) – Formulation

* (58:00) – Soul Magazine!

* (1:04:45) – Certifications

* (1:13:45) – Glass Over Plastic



Where to Find Matt and Soul Performance Nutrition



* Soul Performance Nutrition Instagram: @soulperformancenutrition

* Soul Performance Nutrition on PricePlow



Thanks to Matt for joining us and putting some incredible products into glass bottles!

Subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on your preferred platform and sign up for our Soul Performance Nutrition news alerts on PricePlow. Don’t forget to leave those great reviews on iTunes and Spotify!

Following Episode 133 with Lee Wright, CEO of The Vitamin Shoppe, we head back to the company’s 2024 Brand Summit in Dallas, TX to take a look behind the scenes with some key leaders on the formulation and regulatory side of the company.

Inside the Vitamin Shoppe Brands

Episode 134 of the PricePlow Podcast is a double feature — first, we talk to Senior Brand Manager, Tabitha Daley, and Director of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Brian Tanzer. After that, we patch in a conversation with Dustin Elliott, who was also Senior Brand Manager at the time of recording.

In this episode, you’ll understand how The Vitamin Shoppe approaches formulation within their house brands, manages relationships with their third parties, and deals with regulatory concerns regarding dietary supplement ingredients. We learn a bit about PLNT, BodyTech Elite, and VThrive, three major parts of the Vitamin Shoppe’s strategy — these aren’t just traditional white label brands!

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/vitamin-shoppe-brands-134

Video: An Inside Look at The Vitamin Shoppe’s Brands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikO8FwxmngY

Detailed Show Notes



* (0:00) – Introductions

* (3:00) – Vitamin Shoppe Summit

* (7:00) – New Ingredients

* (11:15) – PLNT

* (14:30) – Employee Insights

* (18:10) – Education

* (24:30) – Ozempic and the Supplement Industry

* (27:45) – Dustin Introduction

* (33:45) – Testosterone-Boosting Supplements

* (41:45) – Other Products

* (45:45) – Private Label



Where to Find Brian, Tabitha, and The Vitamin Shoppe



* The Vitamin Shoppe Instagram: @VitaminShoppe

* LinkedIn: Brian Tanzer, Tabitha Daley



Thanks again to The Vitamin Shoppe for hosting the 2024 Brand Summit, and for everybody’s time we were allowed to take up!

Subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on your platform of choice, sign up for our Vitamin Shoppe blog alerts below, and leave us reviews on iTunes and Spotify!

Our coverage of the 2024 Vitamin Shoppe Brand Summit continues, following up with special guest Jocko Willink on episode #132.

To get a better background on what the Brand Summit is all about, and the direction of The Vitamin Shoppe itself, we went straight to the source — the CEO himself:

A Quick Discussion with Lee Wright, The Vitamin Shoppe CEO

Lee Wright, CEO of The Vitamin Shoppe, has very quickly gained a tremendous amount of respect both within the company and in the dietary supplement industry at large. Reason being, he leads from the front and practices what he preaches.

Prior to this podcast, Lee, who’s normally a modest and private man, gave a speech to the company detailing his own weight loss journey, and how The Vitamin Shoppe’s own products and employees have given him an edge.

There may not be another major retail CEO who’s visited more stores in such a short amount of time, and he’s been able to figure out what the stores really need. A big part of it is continued education and training.

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/lee-wright-vitamin-shoppe-133

Video: Lee Wright, The Vitamin Shoppe CEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wggd5rRQevc

Detailed Show Notes



* (0:00) – Introductions

* (1:30) – The Vitamin Shoppe Brand Summit

* (2:30) – Lessons Learned from Lee’s Trips to Stores

* (6:15) – Is it Just “Widgets” in this Industry?

* (7:15) – Regulatory Concerns: Will Lee be Fighting in Washington DC?

* (9:00) – Learning the Brands and Getting into the Supplement Industry

* (12:00) – In-House Brand Development

* (14:00) – Closing out



Show Notes to be continued…

Where to Find Lee Wright and The Vitamin Shoppe



* LinkedIn: Lee Wright

* The Vitamin Shoppe Instagram: @VitaminShoppe



Thanks again to Lee for your valuable time, especially with all of the other employees in town. We’re looking forward to the next meeting.

You can subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on your favorite platform, sign up for our Vitamin Shoppe blog alerts below, and leave us a great review on iTunes and Spotify!

While at the 2024 Vitamin Shoppe Brand Summit, we were honored to have none other than Jocko Willink of Jocko Fuel on the PricePlow Podcast for Episode 132.

Jocko Willink: Founding Jocko Fuel and Jocko’s Supplement Stack

We had a quick discussion about the founding of Jocko Fuel, how they strive to do the right thing and formulate supplements in the safest way possible, and we get to hear Jocko’s entire supplement stack from start to finish.

We also talk about some of the ongoing regulatory activities, and learn that Jocko is very well aware of some of the challenges that the industry faces.

This is a great continuation from Episode #111 with Brian Littlefield, Jocko Fuel’s co-founder and formulator who hosted us in Maine late last summer.

At 23 minutes, this is a short but powerful episode — you can understand the ethos of Jocko Fuel in just a few minutes of him talking. Just like Jocko himself, Jocko Fuel is the real deal.

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/jocko-willink-132

Video: At The Vitamin Shoppe with Jocko Willink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLh1EmjoJaE

Detailed Show Notes with Jocko



* (0:00) – Hot Mic!

* (0:20) – Introduction

* (1:00) – Being a Leader in Sports and Active Nutrition

* (1:15) – The founding of Jocko Fuel with Brian Littlefield

* (6:00) – Formulating Beyond Jocko’s Use

* (7:30) – No artificial sweeteners!

* (12:15) – Jocko Fuel Living in its Own World

* (14:45) – Jocko Fuel getting involved in regulatory challenges

* (17:00) – Jocko’s Supplement Stack

* (22:00) – Jocko Magnesium!

* (22:15) – Caffeine Before Jiu-Jitsu?



Where to Find Jocko Willink and Jocko Fuel



* Jocko Willink Instagram: @JockoWillink

* Jocko Fuel Instagram: @JockoFuel

* Jocko Fuel on PricePlow: PricePlow.com/jocko-fuel



Thanks again to Jocko for your valuable time. It was a pleasure talking with you both on and off camera!

You can subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on your favorite platform, sign up for our Jocko Fuel news alerts on PricePlow, and leave us a great review on iTunes and Spotify!

For Episode #131 of the PricePlow Podcast, we sat down with Rob Rogers from Axcess Global, the parent company of Ketone Labs, Real Ketones, Vault, and many others. Ketone Labs is best known for selling goBHB, the patented exogenous BHB dietary supplement ingredient — which is the main topic of this podcast.

Rob and his business partner Gary Millet recently marked their 10th anniversary working together. This was filmed on a morning before the doors of Expo West started, and Rob brings a strong message:

goBHB is back on the Market!

After a wild few years in the late 2010s, where BHB supplements were seemingly everywhere, things shifted with the new decade. This conversation dovetails into the end of Episode #106 with Mike McCandless, who had a BHB-based supplement company heading into pharmacies that was devastated in spring of 2020.

Ketone Labs was forced to pull back on the sales of goBHB, taking this time to remove infringing products from the market. They never stopped conducting research, however, and sold BHB-based products in their Real Ketones brand.

The big announcement here and at Expo West 2024 is that Ketone Labs has brought goBHB back into the market for other brands, and some incredible new applications outside of weight loss.

Rob, Mike, and Ben get into Rob’s background, his sports career, the genesis story, and then talk about the incredible ways goBHB can be used in supplements for performance, nootropics, mood/stress relief, concussion prevention, and even sleep. We also learn a few things about the L-BHB isomer that is oft-neglected lately!

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/rob-rogers-131

Video: Talking BHB, Baseball, and Business with Rob Rogers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KIEfaXbRPc

Detailed Show Notes



* (0:00) – Introductions

* (7:15) – Startup Challenges: How to Harness BHB Before Keto Goes Big

* (13:45) – Brand Protection

* (21:30) – Ketone Mafia?

* (31:15) – Ketones Beyond Keto

* (38:00) – The Science Behind BHB

* (46:45) – Introduction to BHB

* (52:45) – BHB in an RTD

* (1:00:00) – BHB as Medicine and the Untapped L-Isomer?!

* (1:12:00) – Wrap Up



Thanks for heading to our BNB and joining us early, Rob!

Subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on any platform, sign up for our Ketones Labs news alerts on PricePlow, and leave us a great review on iTunes and Spotify!

The supplement industry is abuzz with changes, and one of the biggest announcements has been the hiring of Aaron Heidebreicht as Applied Nutrition’s USA CEO. This brings with us a major shift to AN’s North American strategy, all covered in this podcast.

Aaron Heidebreicht Joins Applied Nutrition to Take on The Americas

This podcast was recorded early in the morning before Expo West, where we got to sit down with Aaron and dovetail quite a few storylines. Many of our listeners know Aaron from his appearances in Episode #097 at GNC and Episode #105 at The Vitamin Shoppe, which came with Kaged, where he was the chief commercial officer since late 2022.

Applied Nutrition’s first foray into the American market was with All Black Everything, a brand named from Europe’s best-selling pre-workout supplement that shares the same name. To understand the original mission of the business, see our Episode #114 with TJ Humphreys, their previous CEO.

Aaron’s job is to keep the ABE vision, but take it larger, bringing a whole new series of AN Performance supplements to North America… and far more!

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/aaron-heidebreicht-applied-nutrition-130

Video: Up and Early with Aaron Heidebreicht at Expo West 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm8joHE1aNw

Detailed Show Notes: Applied Nutrition is Coming to the USA in a Big Way



* (0:52) – Applied Nutrition Background

* (1:34) – Applied Nutrition USA

* (2:54) – Applied Nutrition’s Vast Array of Products

* (4:18) – AN’s ABE Story Arc

* (6:18) – Aaron’s Transition From Kaged to Applied Nutrition?

* (7:05) – Aaron’s Journey

* (8:24) – Why Applied Nutrition?

* (11:35) – Who’s Aaron Bringing Over to AN?

* (12:38) – Why Not A Startup?

* (14:37) – AN’s North American Strategy

* (16:36) – Marketing Specifics

* (18:08) – Brand Ambassadors

* (19:45) – ABE’s Current Influencer Content

* (20:56) – ABE vs. AN, Building Brand Awareness

* (22:27) – Expanding On The ABE Nation Model

* (24:21) – The Untapped “Mature Nutrition” Market

* (25:30) – Strategies For Innovation

* (27:17) – The Growing Importance of Informed Sport

* (28:06) – AN’s New Branding vs. ABE Nation

* (31:13) – AN’s Unified Brand Strategy

* (33:16) – Myprotein As a Precedent For AN’s Strategy?

* (33:54) – Lessons Learned From Myprotein

* (36:25) – AN’s Strategic Priorities

* (38:19) – Mike’s Reflections on Aaron’s Career

* (38:54) – Upcoming Releases



Where to Find Applied Nutrition and Aaron



* AN Instagram: @AppliedNutrition

* ABE Instagram: @ABENation

* LinkedIn: Aaron Heidebreicht

* ABE on PricePlow:…



Read more on the PricePlow Blog