The Food Scientist Who Beat the Odds on Shark Tank with Dr. Juan Salinas

Welcome to episode 274 of the Business Development Podcast.

And today we're joined by Dr. Juan Salinas, visionary food scientist, natural bodybuilder and the founder of Peanut Crunch, the plant based protein snack that took Shark Tank by storm and landed a deal with Mark Cuban himself.

From humble beginnings in Honduras to reshaping the way that we think about health and grit and entrepreneurship, Dr. Salina's story is nothing short of incredible.

Stick with us, you don't want to miss this episode.

The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more.

This is the Business Development Podcast in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and broadcasting to the world.

You'll get expert business development advice, tips and experiences.

And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs and business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by Capital Business Development capitalbd ca.

Let's do it to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Hello.

Welcome to episode 274 of the Business Development Podcast.

And today it is my absolute pleasure to bring you Dr. Juan Salinaz.

Dr. Salinas is a visionary food scientist, entrepreneur and the mastermind behind Perfect Life Nutrition Inc.

The company responsible for the creation of Peanut Crunch, a game changing plant based protein snack.

With over 20 years of experience working as an innovator for major CPG companies like Nestle and Kraft Foods, Dr. Salinas combined his deep expertise in food science with his passion for health and fitness to revolutionize the snack industry.

A native of Honduras and now based in New Jersey, he holds a PhD in Food Science from Rutgers University and boasts qualifications in sports nutrition from the International Olympic Committee.

His mission is clear.

To deliver snacks that don't just taste great, but also fuel active, healthy lifestyles.

Dr. Salinas made waves on Shark Tank where he secured an investment from Mark Cuban, propelling Peanut Crunch into the national spotlight.

Driven by his commitment to creating nutritious all natural snacks, he is on a relentless quest to challenge the norms of the food industry and inspire healthier choices for everyone.

Whether leading product innovations worth millions or sharing his expertise as a natural bodybuilder and endurance athlete, Dr. Salinas is determined to change how we snack one delicious protein packed bite at a time.

Dr. Salinas, it is an honor to have you on the show.

Oh man, Kelly, man.

Well, I'm hearing everything you said.

I'm like holy Crap.

And now you're making me feel really old.

I'd rather hear, like, a very short introduction to that.

But my grades are here already, so I can't fool anyone anymore.

You and me both.

Mine came in at, like, 30, so you're doing pretty all right.

You still got some lag in there, man.

I'm white.

This is.

Is an honor to meet you and a pleasure to have you on the show.

I was interviewing Q Harri Terry a while ago.

We were chatting all about the Metaverse because he's my tech master, and he goes, kelly, you have to meet Dr. Juan Salinas and such.

We got introduced and did some digging.

Hadn't really seen that episode, so I was just behind.

And when I saw the Peanut Crunch episode, I was like, wow, I cannot wait to chat with you about your journey, because it was super unbelievable.

That episode is super cool.

And I could just see the emotion on your face, like, what a whirlwind that must have been.

Not to mention the whirlwind that comes after.

But before we go down that journey, take me back to the beginning.

How did you end up on this path?

Yeah, well, you probably heard it from.

From the Shark Tank episode.

I'm native from Honduras, so I grew up in Honduras and went to school there.

I came to the US when I was 18 years old, much to the efforts of my parents.

They promised me that they wanted to give me the best education possible, and they came through, man.

So they sent me here to the United States.

Why New Jersey?

I don't know.

But it was a little bit of a shocker for me when I first got into Newark Airport.

And now I live probably about 10 miles from Newark.

And I love it.

I absolutely love it.

But that was the start of how everything.

My new life here in the United States.

I gotta say, my English was really bad.

So when I landed, I was clueless as to what the signs were saying.

I couldn't even ask you how to go to how to find the bathroom.

So that's.

That was my level of English.

Maybe dog and cat.

I say that, but that was it.

So I was terrified.

But I had an aunt lived here, so she kind of picked me up at the airport and brought me to her place.

And a few weeks later, I was at Rutgers getting enrolled into the English as a Second Language.

That was my first class that I took here in the US and it was amazing, man, because you get to basically learn English without a translator, which I always tell when I think back.

And it's like how I Had classmates from Jordan, from Italy, from all over the world, and there's one teacher speaking to us in English, and yet we're all learning how to speak English.

Isn't that crazy?

It's super crazy.

So.

So, yeah, man.

That eventually led me into my career, which is I'm a food scientist.

I went to Rutgers University.

I got a PhD from there.

And then after that, I decided that I didn't want to back home.

I didn't want to go back.

I felt that the opportunities here in the US Were great.

And I always go back to the American dream, and everybody talks about it.

I'm like, man, what is the American dream?

This is the American dream.

The American dream was even just coming into the US and learning from a top school at Rutgers.

So I was already living the American dream, and I just wanted to make the best out of it.

So I decided to stay here in the US and try to get a job.

I landed in Nabisco.

That's my first job.

It was funny because I was doing a lot of work with potatoes when I was in grad school, and it was just something that fell on my lap.

I just was looking for funding, and there was a company that wanted to do research on potatoes, and I said, I'll do it for my school.

I'll do anything.

Absolutely.

Crazy enough.

That experience that I had with potatoes is what landed my first job on Abisco, because they were trying to develop a potato crisp, almost like a potato chip, baked like a cracker.

And when they learned that I had this background, they immediately hired me.

So this.

This.

The.

I used to get fun.

I used to make fun of my.

By all my friends, what are you gonna do with this potato degree that you have?

And now here I am hanging out with the Nabisco and.

And crackers and Oreos and all this stuff.

So that was the beginning of.

Of it all, man.

That's.

That's how it all started.

Wow.

Wow.

Like, why the passion for food, though?

Like, where did that come from?

Why food science?

Yeah, it's a good question, man.

Because all my families are engineers, and I don't know if it's the same with other cultures, but in the Latin culture, you almost end up doing what your dad does.

Yeah.

For some reason.

So all my brothers and sister, everybody went for engineer, including myself.

My.

My dad was a civil engineer.

I started as a.

As a student, an engineer as well, but I didn't like it at all, man.

I was just like.

I didn't like the.

The curriculum.

So I Went to the career services at my school and I went for advice.

It's okay.

I don't like engineering.

I want to change my degree and what can I do?

And this lady just like basically pulled out a, a thick book, like this big, and she's like, here you go.

It's like, this is all the different career, the different majors that you can graduate from.

Yeah, it's like, take a look at it and see which one you like.

I swear to God, that's exactly what happened.

I started flipping through the pages and I eventually found like food science.

And that just, just the name food that kind of caught my attention, I didn't even know existed.

And then I read a description of it and how you combine science with engineering and physics and chemistry.

And I was like, okay, man, that's what I want to do.

So I felt like it was just in me already.

I'm not, I've never been into like cooking.

I'm not a big time cooker or anything like that.

But it just felt like it was something that combined all these sciences, which I love, into something tangible that you can eat.

Yeah, yeah.

So that was how it all started.

Amazing, amazing.

You're my very first food scientist, so I'm excited.

Our audience has not been introduced to even what this is, so would you mind telling us what, what a food scientist is and does?

Well, a lot of people watch Chevy Chase, right?

Like Christmas vacation.

We love Chevy Chase in Canada.

I think it's the only food scientist that I remember a movie.

Well, it's.

It's pretty cool, man.

So everything that you see on the shelf in a supermarket, there's a food scientist who have created that product.

And basically what we're doing separately, differently from what a chef does, is that we create recipes just like a chef will do.

But then we actually make him shelf stable.

So rather than just using regular ingredients, we try to figure it out.

Okay, can we add something else that will make it last longer or give it a different color or make it taste a little different over time?

We want to make sure the products that are on the shelf are not only safe from a microbiology point of view, but also that they will taste good even after six months or a year?

Yeah, that's what a food scientist does.

Yeah.

My gosh.

And it's funny too, because you're a bodybuilder, a natural bodybuilder, ripped as shit.

By the way, watch the Shark Tank video.

It's incredible.

We will definitely link that to this show.

But walk me through it.

Because I would think as a bodybuilder, you're probably not eating a lot of the food stable creations that are being made by Kraft and Nestle and the best chocolatiers of the world.

Right?

Walk me through.

Was that, like, a bit of a challenge for you to, like, put your head together where on one side you're building unhealthy snacks, but on the other side you're trying to be as healthy as humanly possible?

And that was it.

Seriously.

That was exactly what made me jump into.

Into what I do today.

But.

But you're right, I was like, I was just starting my bodybuilding thing, to be honest, man.

I was doing more like a workout.

I really enjoy working out.

I really enjoy going to the gym.

And the first time I went to the gym, like, I saw, like, my bicep, like, I saw a little, like, vein.

I was like, oh, my God, I got hooked after that.

I was like, man, I'm gonna continue doing this.

Yeah.

And eventually I was like, man, you know, I'm going to the gym all the time.

Like, I gotta do something with this.

So I was like, yeah, let me just see if I can enter one of those shows, bodybuilding shows.

And I did, and.

And I came in first.

So it was like, wait a minute.

I felt like Arnold.

I think Arnold started that way.

You know, I'm like, really have the gene, the genetics for.

To be a good bodybuilder.

Later on, I found out I don't.

That dream got shattered, so I had to do something different.

But now, man, I really enjoy it.

I. I started doing bodybuilding shows maybe about 10 years, maybe 12, 13 years ago, and all natural.

Never really got into the drug thing.

And I just wanted to see how far I could take it just naturally.

But to do that, I needed to learn more about nutrition.

That was kind of the thing that, you know, the food science, the background that I had, plus my interest in, in the whole bodybuilding and kind of led me into this.

How can I make better products?

And like you mentioned, man, we're.

I was working with Oreos, you know, saying I was working.

I was making Oreos and making Chips Ahoy.

So obviously it's like.

So, yeah, there was a joke because we have to do a lot of sensory tasting, right?

So, like, every time you create something, just like a chef, you gotta try it.

Yeah.

Make sure it tastes good.

So we're creating all this.

I'm creating all these cookies and crackers, man.

And I'm like, I gotta.

I gotta trace them, obviously.

But what I will do is, like, I will just put it in my mouth and basically hit it.

But I wouldn't swallow.

I would just spit it out into a cup.

Yeah.

So every.

Every time we did this on group meetings, people will just look at me like we are.

It's like everybody's eating the cookie.

This guy.

Spin it out.

Does it taste that bad?

Yeah, it's just like a diet thing.

Don't worry about it.

My God.

But yeah, man, that's exactly what led me to start my own company because I felt like, man, we're making all these snacks and everything that we care about is that that tastes good.

Yeah.

And it's got to.

There's more than just taste like, I can't just give you a bunch of salt, a bunch of sugar.

Of course it's got these good.

But it's not going to be good for you.

And that was.

That was my.

My aha moment.

And I said, I got to create something that not only tastes good, but also has the better nutrition.

It's got the protein, lower sugar, and, yeah.

Everything else that our body requires to perform its best.

And so that's how I started in this brand, Pen of Crunch.

That's.

That's so cool.

And you know what?

I think, like, you're so unique in that way.

Right.

Somebody who's a food scientist but also a professional nutritionist at the same time.

That's such a unique set of skills.

Yeah.

I mean, they kind of come to the.

They're separate.

But the nutrition piece, I learn more about afterwards during.

When I used to work for Nestle.

Yeah.

And I was working for the performance division, which is basically Power Bar brand.

I don't know if you.

You guys remember that.

Very familiar.

Again, I'm showing my age.

A lot of the kids today are like, what.

What are you talking about?

But yeah, man, this is.

This.

We were working with athletes and working with a bunch of athletes that wanted to perform better.

And like, we're creating snacks and foods that they could.

They could improve their performance.

Yeah.

So.

So that's kind of how I got more into the nutrition piece and more into the sports nutrition and.

And how these things actually affect your body.

Especially if you're an active person, every nutrient that you take actually will have an effect on your performance.

And some of the athletes that we're working with were.

One second improvement makes a huge difference.

Nutrition is.

Is a big part of it.

Yeah.

So, yeah, no, absolutely.

Absolutely.

One of the questions that I kind of had, like, you're also My first nutritionist as well.

So I want to spend a little bit of time with you on this.

Obviously in Canada, in the United States, around the world.

Obesity is a serious, serious problem.

And it's not getting better, it's getting worse.

And I feel like you can look at food pyramids, you can look at whatever you want.

It kind of feels like none of the information is great information, in your opinion.

Like, you've been in this industry for the better part of 25 years.

You know what you're doing on all fronts.

You've invented healthy snacks, you've helped create snacks.

You understand sports nutrition, you understand performance nutrition.

Let's help my amazing entrepreneurs out here in the world today, because we're all struggling with our weight and, and how the heck do we control this thing?

How much exercise do we need?

All these things.

Do you mind just like running us through as somebody who's been in it a long time, You've.

You've seen it, you've seen the industry.

What should we be doing to get healthy again?

Yeah, man.

One of the things that, and I read a lot about obesity and some of the causes, especially in young people, because the reality is if you are a young kid with obesity, then the likelihood of becoming an adult obese are very high.

Yeah.

And this just statistically and all the studies have demonstrated that.

So everything starts when you're a baby.

In a way.

They're tracking down all the way to what kind of foods the mom is eating when you are in the womb.

Wow.

Even down to that level.

Because you start creating certain addictions, in a way, in food addictions.

So if you're consuming a lot of sugar or a lot of soul, the baby starts to get used to these kind of foods.

So when they are born and then they start growing up, just they start craving these things.

And so as we know, the excess of sugar, excess of fat, and an excess of food in general obviously is going to lead into weight gain.

So I think a lot of it has to do with that education to the parent at all levels from the beginning to where they're young.

What kind of diet should you give your kids?

Should we just let them run away with.

With sodas and candies all day long, or should it really teach him how to eat fresh fruits and lower calorie foods and still be satisfied and happy?

So I think everything starts from there.

As we get older now we have all these habits that are going to be harder to get rid of.

And like I said, I think there's just mentally we're just wired to want certain foods.

And I think this comes all the way down from when you were a little kid.

Right.

When you were fed.

Yeah.

So we could do things now that we're older.

I'm not saying it's.

It's a lost cost.

Right.

We know.

We have so much information now about the kind of things that we should avoid.

Right.

High sugar, high a lot of refined sugars.

Unless you're an athlete, you shouldn't be having all this bunch of sugar and sugar products, like even, even protein.

Some of these protein bars today are just loaded with so much sugar that I think is not necessary unless you are an.

An athlete.

And the same thing with fat.

We have an obsession with, with fried foods in this country, which there's a lot.

There's a lot more calories on, on a, on a gram of fat than there is on a gram of protein or carbohydrate.

So when we fry in something, we're increasing the amount of calories just by the fact that it's fried.

Wow.

Even though you're still seeing.

You're still having the same amount.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So.

So there's just a whole bunch of different things that we, we know now today that we should be avoiding or reducing it so that we don't excess eat or increase the calorie amounts that we're consuming on a plate, which will lead to weight gain and eventually obesity.

I really appreciate that because it is.

It is really challenging to understand.

Right.

I think it's like, obviously we know that eating chicken fingers and McDonald's probably isn't the greatest thing for us.

Right.

But I think it's really hard for us to, like, quantify how bad it actually is for us because there's, like, no measure to understand how a bad Big Mac relates to a chicken breast.

Right.

Like, it's just.

It's very hard for us to, like, understand why I can't just eat endless Big Macs or, or.

And, and be as healthy as if I eat endless chicken breast.

Right.

Like, we.

It's like you can look at two things and be like, well, I want the Big Mac.

But yeah, like, I agree.

I think we do, like, we need this, like, massive shift of, like, understanding as to why a Big Mac is not equivalent to a chicken breast.

Right.

I don't know, man.

It's hard.

It's hard.

It's tough.

It's time.

I feel like this is what I've done.

Personally, I don't know if this is right even or not, but somehow I trained my brain to.

To.

To do certain things.

Like, I trained my brain just from my knowledge of knowing that a Big Mag is not good for me.

Yeah.

I sort of train it to say, it doesn't.

It's not good, it doesn't taste good.

So if I go to a restaurant and, you know, someone wants to go to McDonald's, I'll have.

I'll have something else.

Something that is more healthy for me.

Like you say a grilled chicken or something.

Yeah.

Chicken sandwich in the way.

Well, you don't like hamburgers?

Yeah, I do, but, yeah, I don't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

And yeah, I'm satisfied.

It's not like I'm not.

I'm just satisfied.

I'm.

I'm happy.

I'm satisfied.

Well, that's it, right?

Like, we get satisfied no matter what we eat.

But this, it's that, like, split moment.

It's that moment of choice, right?

That's the moment where we make the shitty choices.

Right.

We would be just as satisfied with the chicken, with the grilled chicken as we would with the Big Mac.

But in that moment, our brain is like, dude, get the Big Mac.

Another thing too, man, I think, is we usually, we.

We tend to wait.

We tend to wait a lot for them for the meal.

Like we say, oh, there's breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right?

So it's like, I'm waiting for dinner, but I'm hungry, but I'm waiting for dinner.

By the time you get to dinner, man, it's like, you don't care.

You're so hungry that you're gonna eat whatever's there.

Yeah.

Yes.

So that's another thing.

Like, I created this fitness plan that I use for.

For.

I use for bodybuilding preparation, and I just made it available.

It's on my website for everyone to see and follow.

But what I recommend there, if you can eat five times to six times a day.

Wow.

So have smaller meals throughout the day, so you'll never get to a point where just like, craving anything.

And you almost train your brain to.

To prepare yourself for every meal because you know that every three hours you gotta have something.

And so you have something there that.

That you know is better for you and you don't abuse it.

So I think that's worked for me a lot too.

It takes a little more preparation because you have to eat five times a day.

But once you get it, once you get into the routine, it's really easy.

Okay, okay.

Take me into drinks.

Take me into drinks, Dr. Salitas.

Because alcoholic drinks.

All drinks.

All drinks.

Ju.

Right, whatever.

Take your pick.

How do those impact our day to day health?

Are they a bigger contributor or kind of on the same level as the food we eat?

Like, are we talking alcohol drinks?

Yeah, sure, let's talk alcohol.

Let's talk.

Let's talk juice.

Let's hip hop.

What.

Where do those fit in with regards to our health?

Yes, man, I.

If you have to drink, I always tell people, but if you want to drink, like you.

Because people ask me, even when I'm in preparation for like competitions, like, do you drink?

It's like, yeah, man, I have a few drinks in there.

It's like, but what do you drink?

I said, well, I'll just drink vodka.

I'll drink vodka with club soda.

It's like, vodka is not as bad as whatever we come to.

We join it with like, if you were gonna put fruit juice or some other sweet stuff, then you make it really bad.

So I'll just say, stick to the alcohol, get your boss and then go to sleep.

Wow.

No, but you know the thing, the reality is alcohol drinks, man, they do have calories.

There's 7 calories gram, so protein and carbs are 4, fat is 9, alcohol is 7.

So it's sort of, sort of like getting in between there.

So.

So there is calories involved with, with drinking if it has alcohol.

In terms of just regular soft drinks and things like that.

We know, we know that anything that has.

That is loaded.

So I'll tell you a story, right?

Everything has loaded.

Sugars.

We know it's bad, but I'll tell you a story because I don't know if you ever actually seen the amount of sugar, like, crystallized sugar that goes into one can of regular.

I've never seen it.

Never seen it.

So I used to work for Pepsi too.

I didn't.

I did an internship with them.

And to be honest, man, before then, I never.

I knew sugary sodas were not so great for you, but at the same time, if you're thirsty, we'll just grab one, whatever.

Until I got to the lab and they gave me a recipe and I say, hey, make these batches for us.

These are just.

They were trying different flavors on.

I think it was seven up.

And we're like, all right, cool.

And it's like, okay.

It was sugar, water and flavor.

That was it.

I was like, okay, that's pretty easy.

So I was like, I'm measuring the sugar.

This is crystallized white sugar.

Yeah, I'm measuring it.

I'm like.

And the scale is giving me a number.

I'm like, wait, I'm not there yet.

Like, crap.

I swear to God, bro.

That was all it took.

It was like.

It was almost.

It was almost the volume of the can of soda.

Wow.

That's how much sugar there was in there.

I was like, no, there's got to be something wrong, right?

Yeah.

I was in supervisors.

Like, are you sure this is right?

It's like, yes.

It's like, once you put the water, it will dissolve, and so it doesn't occupy that much volume anymore.

Bob's like, there's no way you put that on sugar in it.

And that was that.

That's the kind of sugar amount that you put that we're taking when we're drinking a clam, a can of soda.

And it just.

If you do that task, man, try to do it at home, you know what I mean?

And you'll see.

Yeah.

And that will.

That will stick to your head.

Oh, man.

You will see, dude.

You will see it.

Oh, my God.

You know, I'm gonna be honest.

I've, like, I've struggled with my weight up and down my entire life.

When I was a kid, I was thin, was skinny, got fat as a kid, got skinny as a teenager.

And we've been packing on the weight probably from 20 to 35 back on again, right?

And it's just been something that my entire life, I've struggled with, and I get that.

For me, it's a battle with my taste buds.

It's a battle with, like.

It's like, I know better, but I want my thing.

Right?

But the older I get, the more I realize, like, get your together, Kelly.

It's time.

Right?

But I.

You know, I was thinking about what you were saying here with regards to.

It's.

It's a mindset thing because when I was, like, younger, I smoked because I was an idiot.

So I smoked cigarettes, right?

I quit smoking when I was 25, but I quit smoking using Alan Carr's easy way quit smoking method.

Like, nothing else worked.

Not the nicotine patches, not the shots, not whatever else.

What I needed was to change my mindset, and that helped me quit smoking.

Like you said, I made.

I made smoking in my brain feel disgusting, feel different.

Like, it changed my entire mindset around it.

And I think that's probably also the way that we have to change our mindset around food because it's an addiction, just like smoking.

I agree, man.

I agree.

I don't know this method that you're talking about, but it sounds like, it's.

It changes your perspective about how you see the product that you're consuming.

Yeah.

You know, and if you know that it's toxic, what would you want to put something toxic in your body and eventually, like, your brain starts to realize that it takes a little bit because we have our moments of weakness and stuff.

But especially with food, I. I truly feel that sugar and there's other compounds that are put into food that.

That really are addicted.

Yeah.

And they cause physical and chemical.

It's a chemical addiction.

So you have to probably think about it the same way as you were doing as you were talking about with.

With a cigarette and smoking.

It's probably.

It's very similar.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think that's the problem is we're always looking for the easy fix.

Right.

It's like we want to.

We want to put the patch on and quit smoking, or we want to.

We want to be able to just not want Big Max or whatever it is.

Right.

The chemical fix.

Right.

I think right now everyone's taking Ozempic.

That's like the new big thing.

We'll take this shot.

Then we don't have to eat as much.

Right.

But the problem isn't.

Isn't eating or the amount we're eating.

It's.

It's what we're eating.

Like, there's a lot of things you can eat a lot of, if that's your thing, that are not going to make you fat.

But our cravings are for these things that make us super sick.

And then on top of that, they're available everywhere.

Like, you can't go anywhere and not buy something that's horrible for you, but tastes amazing.

Right.

See, it's like people like ask me all the time, how do you stay in shape?

I stay in shape.

It's like, yeah, you got to make sacrifices.

You know what I mean?

You can't, like, indulge in everything and just pretend that everything's going to be all right and you're going to have a six pack.

Yeah.

It's not going to happen.

Yeah, I know.

Exactly, man.

It works, dude.

It works.

But I tell you, man, because I know people and I like to observe because I wanted to know what's going on with something.

Is that really the miracle thing for weight loss and all this stuff?

And the reality is that people do lose weight, but I go back to, like, me, what kind of weight is that that you're losing?

Yeah.

And what I'm.

What I'm observing is that you just.

People just don't get hungry anymore.

And your body needs to.

To be sustained by food, especially your muscles.

Yeah.

Right.

And if you're not feeding your muscle, eventually you're just gonna start to degrade, like disappear.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So you're losing weight, but it's, it's not the right way that you're losing.

You're losing a lot of muscle with a little bit of fat.

And at the end of the day you're gonna end up being like a skinny fat on skinny fat.

You still have a larger amount of fat in relation to your.

To your muscle.

Yeah.

Which is not a good look.

Yeah.

Personally, I don't think it is like talking to you.

I've talked to a lot of people who tried intermittent fasting and had a lot of success with it.

I had temporary success with it.

It was very hard for me to keep doing, which was the challenge, like long term.

I actually lost quite a bit of weight doing intermittent fasting, but I found it really hard to sustain.

You're.

You obviously work with a lot of people.

What is, what has been your view on intermittent fasting?

Yeah, I mean, it's similar to the Ozempic thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because again, and to me, it's just.

That's what I suggest.

Eat, eat more.

Like, don't eat less, eat more.

But you know, more often, not less often.

Yeah.

Because I think your body will go through this starvation periods and obviously you gotta lose weight.

But when you starting, it's almost like one of the things that bodybuilders do before they, they go into the show is that you drink a lot of water and you actually fill yourself with a lot of water and you will think that that's the opposite, that what you want to do.

Because when you're in stage, you want to be as dry as possible.

What happens is that you drink a little water and then you stop.

Your body continues to think that it's going to be water coming in.

So they continue to get rid of.

Get rid of water through.

Through your pests.

Like you start.

You basically could.

You're going to the bathroom like all the time.

Seriously.

And you stop eating.

But for the next three days you're gonna be pissing a lot.

Yeah.

And you're gonna get that dry look.

Right.

But it's the same thing with food.

You know what I mean?

Your body gets used to whatever routines you're giving it.

So if you're not feeding it throughout the day basically goes into a mode of more like it's called it's like a safety mode.

It's like, I'm going to save everything because I don't want to die.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

So.

So it starts to basically reserve everything that you have, but then, so basically, in other words, your metabolism starts to slow down.

Everything starts to.

Your fat starts to basically be safe because you need that during stress times.

Yeah.

And now you're going to feed them again.

So it's almost like counterintuitive.

So that's.

That.

I mean, that's my opinion.

It works just like Olympic would.

But I think it's the wrong way.

The wrong way of losing we way.

Yeah, Yeah.

I actually agree with you because, I mean, I know people who are.

And you're right.

Like, that's kind of.

It does kind of make you wonder because your body is.

Is not going to be like, oh, well, I'm only going to burn the fat now.

It's like, no, I'm going to burn the muscle.

I'm going to burn the fat.

I'm going to burn.

I'm going to wholesale fire sale this place.

So kind of what you're saying is the secret really, really is in what you're eating.

That's.

That's what I'm really gathering from this.

It's.

It's what you're eating.

And then how does, how does physical activity plan?

Yeah.

So the same thing.

Right.

So everything is correlated because again, you're feeding, let's say, your muscles when you do extra.

So here's how I usually explain it.

Right.

You're like a car.

You could have a big engine.

Right.

If you have a big engine, you're going to consume a lot of gas.

Right.

If you have a small engine, then you don't consume as much.

So muscle is that engine.

So you want to build more muscle.

If you build more muscle, you can feed it more and your body's just gonna use it and burn it.

Yeah.

Versus if you have very little muscle.

And then whatever you put in, it's just not going to be used as much.

And so everything just goes into reserve.

So the more muscle you have, the more effective or efficient you're going to be at burning calories.

So exercise is.

That's where it comes into play because you.

The only way to build muscle is through exercise.

Yeah, that's.

That's it.

There's no other way right now.

Unless they come out with another authentic drug.

I've seen pictures of some big bowls and something.

I don't know what this is.

This.

What's coming out of the penuff lab next.

Man, if we come up with that stuff, I'll be a billionaire.

I'll be giving back a share.

So it's all about.

It does play in.

I get it from that standpoint because it's like if you, if you're already fat, your body is just going to continue to take extra food and just pack it away, pack it away, pack it away.

You got nothing that's burning that extra food.

So there's no way really to get fit without incorporating.

Without incorporating exercise to keep that engine revved high.

I will go, I will go even farther to say that you need strength exercise.

Right.

Because a lot of people just constantly, yeah, I'm just gonna do cardio.

And yes, you're burning calories when you're doing cardio, but you're not building a lot of muscle.

And so after the cardio is done, you're back to a normal part, you know, to your normal engine.

Yeah.

If you, if you actually incorporate both, then you could burn the calories, but then at the same time, you're building muscle through strength training because you can only build muscle through strength exercise.

You got to put, you gotta overload the muscle in order to do that.

Yeah.

So when you're doing that now all of a sudden.

Yeah, you know, I mean, you, now, after you're done with the gym, you continue to, to burn calories and continue to be an efficient engine of, of a burning calorie engine.

Amazing.

When, when you work out, do you do, do you do your weight training first and then your cardio or do you do cardio first and then your weight training?

Weight training first.

Okay, okay.

All right, all right.

Awesome, awesome.

Okay, so now, now we got to go into p. Enough.

Because obviously you're, you're really into your fitness, you're in your health, your bodybuilding, and you're realizing there isn't a lot of great snacks that go along with your lifestyle.

Was that like the motivation where you're like, okay, I, I'm a food scientist, I can do this?

Yeah, basically, Absolutely, man.

And the thing is, the older you get, the small, the little smarter bits you get, you learn a.

From here and from there and then you start to realize it's like, man, it's like we could do better than this.

You start saying that.

And I love all these companies I work with, never trash them.

But one of the things that I think the big corporations were lack of is that they didn't really adapt innovation as quick as they should have.

That.

And you see the results today, where a lot of small companies are the ones that are actually innovating, and then the big companies are the ones buying them.

And it's a cultural thing, man, because we will come up with all these great, awesome ideas as food scientists and product developers.

Hey, why don't we do this?

Why don't we.

Why don't we do something that is actually better?

And the politics and everything that goes on with big corporations basically slows down the whole process and that adaptation.

So we will never.

I suggested a lot of different products that Nestle basically just sat on it or rejected it because the CEO had to approve it.

And it was just like, forget about it.

This is never going to happen.

So I kind of grew frustrated at all that stuff.

And I was like, all these ideas that I have that I want to implement, I can't implement them here.

It's like, then I'm gonna start my own company.

I'm gonna implement it myself.

My God.

And that's.

That's how I started it, man.

That's how I started my.

My company.

I gotta be honest, it was sort of like a layoff thing situation.

Yeah.

That kind of.

Kind of set me back.

Oh, I knew I always wanted to do it.

Yeah.

To find that money, you need the.

You need the key.

Yeah, that's not easy, man.

I needed that, too.

Don't worry.

You have, like, a nice income coming your way.

Everything's cool.

You.

You're in a flow.

You know what I mean?

You're, like, going big.

You think you're gonna be CEO one day and all this, and.

And to step away from all that and go back to nothing, really.

Because that's what you're doing when you're starting a new company.

You're back to lower than the lower at your company.

It's.

It's not easy, man.

No, it's not easy.

So for me, what it took, it was.

There was.

There was a transition where the division of Power Bar was being sold and it got sold to another company.

And it was during that time that I had some time to think about because they were doing some layoffs and they were basically putting some packages and offers.

I was like, you know what?

I don't know if I continue doing what I'm doing, especially this new company, which is.

I felt it was a good fit.

Yeah.

So I was like, nah, this is my time to do something.

And that's.

And that's where I just.

I put.

Put down.

And I'm like, all right, I'M going for it, man.

I talked to my parents.

I'm religious.

I went to church for a whole week, and I pray a lot.

And I say, if this is the right thing to do, let's let.

Let me do it.

Let's go for it.

And.

And that was the beginning.

Overall.

My God.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

And obviously, read the story and you had to invest a small fortune of your own money just to get this thing going.

Talk to me about that.

Like, talk to me about.

About that initial setup and the costs involved and, like, what was it like to try to pull together.

What was it, $375,000 that you put together before you even showed up at Shark Tank?

Like, wow.

I'm still spending some months on my own.

Yeah.

And that's one of the things when I like to.

When I get invited to for talks and things like that.

I always talk about when you start a company, the reality is, you know, if you're new at it, it's very unlikely you're gonna get funding from somebody.

It's like, who is this guy, man, saying, like, he's just awesome.

I'm gonna give him money for it.

So you gotta start with your own.

So the only people you could get money is from yourself or if your family are nice, or you have a rich uncle.

Yeah.

There you can reach into his pocket.

But I didn't.

So I basically had to use everything that I have saved on.

And I mean, everything that I saved for over 25 years of working as a product developer.

And.

Yeah.

And you watch every penny because of that.

Everything.

I will try 10 times before I say, I can't do this.

I'm gonna hire someone to do it.

Yeah, but you always try to do it.

And so, yeah, I did spend a lot of money on my own.

I basically took all my.

Everything that I've saved.

I haven't touched my 401k yet.

That's good.

But I'm trying not to.

Not to go there.

I'm trying to think that doesn't exist.

Well, if I was gonna say in Canada, I think we're all worried that we're even gonna get a retirement plan.

So who knows?

Maybe it is worth spending it.

But you know what I mean, for entrepreneurs, man, out there that are listening to this, it's.

There's a lot of resources out there, man, that I found out, too.

There's a lot of.

At least here in the U.S. for instance, the government has programs that you have that you could apply and get a grant for $20,000 or $10,000 here or $5,000 there.

I was doing all that kind of stuff, man.

I was doing, I was applying for like business plan innovations at Rutgers and I made $20,000 there.

Then I replied for a TikTok thing and I made another 5,000.

I mean, all this little money, man, helps, especially when you're starting up.

Yeah, it's, it's just knowing where to go or knowing that it exists.

Right.

Because most entrepreneurs start, they don't even know what resources are available to them.

Right.

That is true.

That's true.

That and I was lucky to have found an organization called score.

I don't know if that exists in Canada too, but I've never heard.

Yeah, it's core.org for anybody who's trying to get into entrepreneurship.

It's an organization that is everything's free.

And basically it consists of a bunch of mentors in every area of running a business.

Wow.

So.

And what they are is usually retirees.

Someone that might have been a CFO for manufacturing company now is lending his time to just help out somebody else.

So it's a great resource.

Free.

They have seminars all the time.

So I, I hooked up with them and I got a mentor in the manufacturing area and financial area, which is my weakest.

And so he helped me a lot.

And like, I don't know if you mentioned, but I have my own manufacturing facility now.

So it was, it was because of this mentorship that I was able to do that.

Wow.

So.

Wow, that's incredible, man.

Like, so walk me into it.

You had, and if I remember correctly, you had to start your own manufacturing facility because you used peanuts and that didn't work out in like the grand schem manufacturing food.

Yeah.

It's funny, I heard different podcasts and a lot of, a lot, a lot of entrepreneur owners, entrepreneurs, they will give you this advice of avoid these barriers.

If there's a huge barrier, especially in manufacturing, like avoid that, you don't go there, man.

Just don't get, steal it.

And I, I took it the other way, man.

I was like, don't, don't tell me what to do.

When I hit back, I'm like, well, they're probably right.

But at the same time, what we did is because I, I knew there was going to be more of a challenge to create a product on a process that I'm looking for that had a peanuts because of the allergy and cross contamination issue.

Right.

So companies don't want to make your product in the same line that they're Making in other products that don't have peanut.

Yeah.

All of a sudden you have to label that and every other product and there's the risk of potential cross contamination.

And yeah, that could be a problem.

So it was extremely hard for me to find a place and I started it down in Midwest.

I launched and then I got kicked out soon after.

So I went down South Florida to another startup company.

After six months, he kicked me out.

Then I came up all the way up here north.

And I decided with my brothers that it's like, man, I need.

I need.

I need to buy.

I can't continue doing this.

I need to, like, get my own manufacturing facility, my own equipment.

And so I talked to my brother and they helped me out on getting the equipment.

That was awesome.

And so I was able to get it.

But that was just the beginning of just another challenge.

Yeah.

Now manufacturing brand owner.

I'm like CEO.

I'm like financial officer and marketing and sale.

I'm like, it got.

It got to be a lot.

There's not enough hours in a day.

Yeah.

And just the manufacturing is a business on his own.

So, yeah, it was.

It was tough.

It was very tough.

And I.

That's one of my lessons learned is that you.

You gotta.

First of all, you gotta figure it out what, what, what you're good at, what you stand.

Spend more.

Most of your time on.

Because what I was doing is just learning so much about manufacturing that I basically left aside sales and marketing.

So I'm like, well, I'm starting to build this awesome manufacturing facility, but I'm not selling anything.

So I'm like, wait, that doesn't work.

It can't be one of the others.

I gotta sell so I can build.

Have a reason for having a manufacturing facility.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Into that realization later.

My gosh.

It wasn't the.

If you build it, it will come.

That's great.

That's right.

Yes.

Forget that.

They will not come.

No.

That has been my biggest challenge, man.

The manufacturing piece.

And it continues to be imperfect.

Where we actually just moved to another facility.

This is the fifth time I moved five times.

Oh, my God.

In nine years.

Oh, my gosh.

Are you done?

Are you done, Mo?

Hopefully, man, hopefully we're moving to a.

New house at the end of the week, and I'm already like, I don't want to do it.

Well, you know, if you have another company, it'd probably be a manufacturing moving company.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Just keep.

Just keep tagging it on.

You're clearly just like, expanding into new sectors.

So why not?

What was it like?

What was it?

Obviously you understood food production.

You understood it.

What was it like, though, starting your own manufacturing facility?

Because I feel like, like you said, like, there had to have been a lot of things that you had to learn.

And it is like starting a whole nother organization or new business.

Did it feel like something that you already knew enough about that you could do it, or was it literally like a ground up?

I had to figure it out.

Yeah.

I mean, I definitely did not know everything that, that it took to do.

I thought I did because I have been around manufacturing plants, like all my career.

I mean, I probably visited over 50, 60 manufacturing plans and then.

And I was project manager, so I knew all about equipment and management and all that stuff.

But having your own manufacturing facility and starting it from the ground is just completely different.

Yeah, Like, I had no idea.

I had to ask my brother for.

A lot of help.

He's an engineer.

In terms of just even setting up the machines right.

And the right electric needs and gas and water and then dealing with the FDA and all the requirements that I had no idea about that.

Yeah.

I didn't know how intricate it was.

And quality certifications that you got to have and.

And then dealing with labor.

Yeah, that was not part of HR will just hire for me.

Like, I have people that work with me, but HR was the ones in charge of that stuff.

Now it's like you're dealing with labor, the labor laws and wages and.

And the scheduling and all this stuff.

I'm like, man, that was another just.

This is a job of itself, man.

So, yeah, you did it.

Right.

And there's so many people who would not have been able to do it.

And so that's why I just wanted to chat with you about it because I've talked with so many people who say, don't do something you don't understand.

Don't do something that you're not already an expert in.

Right.

But I've seen so many people just like you take that leap, do something that's what's close.

But there's still a lot to learn and still have incredible success.

What would you say has made this successful for you?

Because I think there's a lot of people who wouldn't have been able to do it.

Yeah, man.

Thank you for that, though.

But I mean, I have a lot of weaknesses, but one of, I think my strengths is.

And it all comes from sports, man, I always go back to sports because I, as a kid, I used to.

I used to be in a swing team.

And then I talked to you to.

We talked about bodybuilding, and we didn't talk about.

I used to do marathons and things like that.

But one of the things that I.

That sports taught me, man, is that you.

When you first jump into a pool, you have.

You don't know how to swim.

Right.

You don't know how to swim.

So you can.

You could put a roadblock right there and say, man, I'm never gonna know how to swim or even become an Olympic medalist.

Like, that seems so far away.

Yeah, but you gotta.

But if you jump in the pool and you do the first paddleboard, like your first swim and whatever, you start swimming, all of a sudden you starting getting the groove.

All of a sudden you started, like, figuring things out, and then you started paying more attention to details.

Next thing you know, you're in the team, and then you see, you know, you might be doing a time for Olympic medal.

And what he told me is like, no, you just gotta dive into it.

Dive into it.

Don't put your barrier right at the front saying, oh, man, that seems so difficult.

Forget about it.

I'm not gonna go there.

Yeah, just inch it in.

Start with something and.

And just try to figure that out.

Once you figure that out, inch in a little more and try to figure the next thing out.

And then the next thing, and then next.

And all of a sudden, like, you're swimming.

You know what I mean?

All of a sudden you're swimming and you feel like, okay, I'm swimming.

I'm not fast, but I'm swimming.

And then you start to, like, get faster and faster.

I think I kind of follow that with.

With everything that I do.

In a way, it's like, as hard as it seems, I'm just gonna jump into it.

If I feel it's right, I'm just jumping into it.

I'll figure it out when I'm there.

Yeah, I love that.

And no entrepreneur ever, ever started knowing the whole path or the whole picture.

Like you said, sometimes you just gotta have that leap of faith.

You gotta trust in God and take the jump.

Right.

I know.

I was one of those people.

You're clearly one of those people.

I don't think any of us have the full path.

Like, you couldn't have seen the Shark Tank win right when you started this, but.

But because you started it, that opportunity presented itself and you.

And you won.

Right.

Like, you can't see what's coming.

That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned as an entrepreneur.

You can't see what's coming.

You make all the plants in the world, you cannot see what's coming.

But I bet you if you stick in it, what's coming is pretty incredible.

Yeah.

It's never straight line.

Right?

No, like, you.

You have that vision.

You know where you want to go, and you think this is the path, and then you realize this is the path.

Right.

But.

But you know, as long as you.

You have your.

Your vision and.

And even that target could move.

It's a moving target.

Yeah.

We figured so many times with so many things, when we first started Pnuff, there was not a.

There was not a peanut puff product out there.

Wow.

So for me, Peanut Prof. Was just like, perfect.

This is going to attract a lot of custom customers because it's new.

Yeah.

Something very innovative.

And it did.

It was at the time.

Yeah.

But things change very quickly.

After five years, there was like, five or six or seven other companies doing the same thing.

And so it's like, okay, what do.

What do I have to do now to stand out?

And one of the last things that we did, it's like, okay, why don't we play more in the protein now?

Because now people are, like, really understanding more about protein and realizing that they want to have more protein in their snacks and desserts and things that taste good.

So it's like, all right, let's start pivoting that way.

So even though we started as a peanut puff, now we're a protein puff.

Amazing.

You see what I'm saying?

Yeah.

And it's the same.

Really, pretty much the same product, but we're kind of changing as we go.

Yes, yes.

You're adapting.

You're adapting as the whole world is finally catching up to.

It's important.

This show, the show, I wanted to really focus in on you, your journey, all that, but it wouldn't be complete if we did not talk a little bit about your Shark Tank experience.

And I. I wanted to just chat with you about it because you.

You came out there, like, on fire.

You were incredible.

And one of the things that.

That came to me when I saw that was, holy shit, that dude is brave as they come, man.

Like, you had.

You.

You had it all figured out.

You came out there confident, brave, and yet inside you must have just been like, oh, God.

Oh, God, oh, God.

And I just have to ask you, dude, like.

Like, how did you.

How did you prepare for Shark Tank?

How did you come out there?

Like.

Like, you did.

Yeah.

No, I mean, I can tell you, man, that was it was in 2020, so co.

It was full co going on around, right?

So if.

If anyone's watching, watches the.

The show, you'll see that one of my.

One of the things that I do is like, I kind of like, rip off the.

This co.

This lab coat and I'm basically doubless and I'm like, wait, so I gotta get in shape for this because obviously I try.

I keep.

I keep in good shape all year round, but not like.

Not like shredded.

Yeah.

And so that was one of the biggest challenges because I couldn't go to a gym, so everything was closed.

Covid.

Right?

Closed every gym.

So I'm like, I gotta come up with some routine here at home.

And I did.

I came out with this awesome routine and I got in good shape for the show.

I had like a month to do it.

And then once we got into.

One of the things that they had to do was move the studio from LA to Las Vegas because LA was shut down completely.

Okay.

And they were actually thinking about canceling the whole year.

But they found a location in Las Vegas and they figured we can move the whole studio to Las Vegas.

And now we're going to have people coming to.

Into Las Vegas.

So we went in there, but we had to isolate for, I think it was 10 days.

Oh, wow.

We're.

We were inside a room.

Oh, no, we couldn't leave the room, man.

Oh, man.

They were like, if you leave the room, basically you're out.

So like, wow.

Okay.

You're gonna stay in this room for 10 days.

So can you imagine?

Right?

No, I can't.

I would lose my mind.

I don't know how you did it.

And here's the worst part, right?

So they had like, what am I gonna eat?

Right?

Yes, I know.

It's more than.

So I can't just eat French fries and hamburger, right?

Like, I gotta, like, keep my diet well and everything else with protein, right?

So I loaded a suitcase, man.

Wow.

Like, tuna.

Tuna cans.

I made like 20 pounds of grilled chickens, which I put them in Ziploc bags and I asked them for ice every day so I could put it in there.

So I basically build up a whole 10 days full of meals, man.

Wow.

Wow.

I don't think the mini fridge is that big, dude.

No, I asked him for.

So it's funny names because I couldn't leave the room.

So I had to ask them.

I called them.

It's like, hey, can you give me some ice?

Because got some stuff pretty nice.

And they bring me, like, one of those Little containers.

I was like, yeah, no, I need like, I need like a can.

Like a big garbage can full of ice.

Yeah.

And they brought me a huge freaking can.

You do this every day for the next 10 days.

Oh, man, that's awesome.

And they did, man.

This is, this I saw.

This is.

I swears, guy, I swear to God this is true.

So I was trying to find, like, I was trying to do pull ups, so I was trying to find little edges in the room where I could do pull up.

Yeah.

Oh.

So yeah, man.

So.

But you know what it did for me though is like those 10 days were actually really good for me because I was focused.

There was no distraction.

I could completely focus on the Shark tank thing.

And so I basically practice a lot of my pitch.

I kind of went through all the questions that I've seen on previous shows that they try to ask and try to come up with a list of good answers.

A negotiation chart.

Yeah.

That I had, that I made.

It's like, okay, if he offers me this much, what am I gonna do?

Yeah.

They're all in my head.

All the numbers were in my head.

Yeah.

I didn't want to start like, oh, wait, hold on.

Give me a second.

Let me pull out my calculator and see what you can offer me.

So I try to memorize all, every scenario to see, you know, what kind of deal I will take or not.

So the whole 10 days, man, were really good for me.

It helped me prepare a lot.

But.

But it was a.

Was very intense, man.

From morning till night.

That's all I basically.

That's.

That's all I did.

Yeah, that's all I did is just work on preparing for it.

It showed, man.

It showed.

You absolutely killed that.

And actually when I was watching it and you were negotiating with Mark Cuban, I'm.

I'm listening.

I'm thinking, holy the balls on this guy.

Like, he's got.

He's like, no, this is what I want.

Good for you.

Like, that's incredible because the pressure you must be feeling in that moment, the cooker, that is that room.

Unbelievable.

Well, trust me, man, part of me was thinking, like, I'm gonna this up.

Yeah.

Wow.

And even the other sharks, I don't know if they showed this part, man, but as we were going back and forth because it went for a little bit, and some of the other sharks, like, are you crazy?

They started telling me you crazy.

So I never seen Mark so excited.

It's like, take the deal.

So, yeah, I mean, it was, it was.

There was A little bit of pressure there.

That.

Yeah, yeah, it was.

It was pretty incredible.

I think you did great.

I think it was.

I think it was.

It was amazing.

And actually, if I remember correctly, at the time, you were valuing the company at 3.

3.

Was it 3 million at the time?

Yeah.

And I did some Googling, try to figure out where you were at.

And according to all the numbers I could find today, you're.

You're worth well over 4 million.

So I would say you did incredible.

They were wrong with their valuation.

Yeah.

The whole valuation thing, man, it was getting hard for me to figure it out.

Like.

Like, why should I value my company?

Now, what I'm willing to take, because there's just so many factors, and they tell you, is it two times or three times, whatever your sales?

And, like.

Like, it's not all.

There's so many other factors.

And the reality is, at that time, when I went in Shark Tank, I didn't really have tons of distribution.

I had a lot of local independent store distribution, but I wasn't in, like, you know, nationwide Whole Foods or Eggman's or anything like that.

So it was.

It was kind of hard for me to, like, play that game.

I was like, hey, we're doing all this.

Sure.

Model sales and everything else.

And my job was more to show him the potential.

Potential?

Yeah, the potential.

What could be.

Yeah.

And that's kind of how I evaluated the conference.

Like, well, this is the potential this company has.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Based on everything that I'm done and the consumer and the.

And the trends and everything that is happening.

And I think Mark was able to see that.

And that's why, you know, I was happy to.

Actually.

He gave me more money because I felt like.

He probably felt like, you know, this guy.

Yeah.

This dude is gonna need more than what he's asking.

Well, I think you nailed it, because Mark's wife had bought him peanut, and he loved it.

And that was the tipping point, Right.

I don't think any of the other sharks had tried it, but not only had he tried it, he chowed the whole bag.

Right?

Like, that was the sell.

And.

And that was incredible.

I was like, oh, there you go.

Right?

The proof is in the pudding.

Like I said, man, God has been on my side, man.

And that one.

He did that one right.

Think about it.

What are the odds, right?

What are the odds at that time, like you said, with.

With the lack of dist.

You were only in a handful of stores, whatever, that a bag of those.

A bag of Peanut would have Ended up in Mark Cuban's cupboard.

Right.

Definitely.

Definitely some divine intervention.

It's funny, after the.

After the show was over, I saw Mark in the back.

Yeah.

And obviously we had to, like, talk from here to there.

Yeah.

But he was like, can't wait.

I can't wait to tell my wife that I just invested in pictures.

It's like, she's got me so happy.

It's like.

That's funny.

Yeah.

Incredible.

Incredible.

And talk to me.

What happens after?

I think that's, like, the question that everybody who watches Shark Tank is like, okay, but then what happens?

So watch us here.

What happens after that?

Well, the medial thing that happens afterwards is that, man, there's.

Obviously, this is an entertaining show.

Right.

So there's got to be a lot of film going on even afterwards.

Sure.

So they're trying to capture your emotions and what happened.

So it doesn't end after you walk off the stage.

When you.

When you walk off the stage now, you're meeting with, like, a lot of the.

The producers, and you're doing a couple more takes.

But one of the things that I thought was interesting is that they take you to see also a psychologist.

So you go in the bag and this is.

You enter a room and they close the door, and you just sit down with these psychologists, man.

And this guy is.

Is basically saying, hey, are you feeling, man?

Are you all right?

Wow.

Which I'm like.

I'm like, yeah, man.

I'm happy.

As I was like, yeah.

Did everything go well?

It's like, you're mentally fine.

Looking good.

Oh, man.

So I didn't spend that much time with him because I was just, like, there.

I just, like, I just want to go to the hotel, tell my family that I made a deal with Mark, and.

And just, like, smile and jump, man, because I felt so happy, man.

Yeah.

I don't remember.

I mean, that's probably one of the happiest moments I've ever been on.

Your face was incredible when you walked through those doors.

Right.

I'm like, holy cow.

Like, I can't imagine what he must be feeling right now.

I said, like, because after I took that, my.

My coda, I didn't have a share.

So I told the producers, like, I don't want to.

I don't want to continue the whole conversation without a shirt, man.

It's kind of weird.

Yeah.

I was like.

And they're like, well, you can put your shirt on if you want back on.

I was like, okay, so let me do that.

Right?

Yeah.

So you'll Notice that?

Yeah, it was like magic.

You weren't wearing a shirt, and then you had a shirt back on.

Yeah, yeah.

But I was like.

I had thought this before.

I was like, if I get a deal, man, I said, I'm gonna rip the off.

I'm gonna do it.

And after I got the deal, I was like, yes, I'm gonna do this.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

Well, when I look out, you see.

Right.

Yeah.

I have, like, the shirt all red.

And I was like, yeah, man, I should have saved a shirt, man.

I framed it, hung it up on the wall.

In the garbage, man.

I should have saved it.

Yeah, yeah.

So talk to me.

Like, obviously, you know, you, what, you got what, $400,000 from that deal?

Yeah.

What happened next?

How were you able to use that money to really make pnuff take off?

Yeah.

So the money is given to us on a quarterly basis.

So we received it over the period, the whole year.

It's Mark's company, man.

They're smart with how they do this thing because they want to make sure that you're not just using the money to buy yourself a Mercedes Benz.

And so they want to know very in detail.

I had to provide.

How am I going to use this the first quarter?

Am I going to use the first initial?

A hundred thousand dollars?

And I had to put exactly what we were doing.

So it helped me also think more about, okay, what are the best usage of this money?

And like I told them in the.

During the pitch during the episode that I needed help with marketing, sales, and manufacturing.

So a lot of it, that's where everything went to, especially manufacturing.

Because at that time, we had the equipment, but we didn't have a facility.

So we were having a lot of issues with the.

With the location where we were.

So we wanted to have a better facility where we can feel better about the quality of the product and even make it a bigger business.

So a lot of it went into that.

The other part that went into it was for rebranding.

We did a rebranding of the bag.

We hired some marketing people and some salespeople to help.

So very basic stuff.

Yeah, very basic.

Well, 400 grand doesn't go very far, especially not when you've got that.

That kind of costs.

That's is a.

It's nothing really.

Absolutely.

And you're 100.

Right.

And that's why, like, nothing's changed.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

I'm still like, petty pinching every little thing, you know, because this 400,000 is not going to take Me very far.

I can't go out and, and just start like going crazy.

But, but man, I wouldn't be here without it.

That's, that's the reality.

It meant everything.

And Mark Cuban did like he, you know, one of the big things other than the money that has helped us a lot is just his team, like working with Cube.

He's helped us so much on, on the area of marketing.

The guy's a guru.

He's incredible.

Yeah, yeah.

And then Mark Cuban himself, even though we don't have like weekly meetings with him, whenever we have big decisions to make or we're trying to go in a different direction or something, he always have his input into it, which we have taken to heart.

A lot of his input is some of the things that we've done which was made us successful.

So just having him in the back and having his name.

When we go to a retailer and we say, yeah, we're part of Mark Cuban Company, it gives you a lot of credibility already and it helps you get into your left foot into the door.

Now we continue to work to get the other foot in and, and continue.

But just his name.

Yeah.

Has done liberals for us.

He seems obviously, I don't know Mark Cuban, but he seems like a really amazing individual.

What has it been like to just to know him and to work with him.

Yeah, I mean my first.

So when we made the deal, there was a disaster that happened in my home country, Honduras.

There was a hurricane, big hurricane.

Working man, that was one of the first communication with him.

It was like he had asking me, hey, it's like, can you.

I'd like to donate for the cause over there in Honduras.

Like, can you recommend a good organization that I can talk to?

That was the first thing.

Wow.

I was like, man, this guy's good.

Yeah, he's a good guy.

Yeah.

I think you know, the guy that you get.

But at the same time, it's like you get what you, what you ask for in a way.

So if you don't ask anything, he won't give you anything.

Sure.

Which going in.

I think a lot of people think that, like, oh, you're set.

You know what I mean?

You have to do a sit back and these guys are going to basically take you to Target or Costco or introduce you to the other guy and you'll set.

You basically have to just be the face of the company and nothing like that.

It's basically, is basically business as usual, except that now you have maybe somebody here that you know, you can ask specific Questions for.

To help you out with.

So I'm still.

I'm still learning how to get the most out of Mark.

I'm still figuring it out.

Like, you know what I mean?

It takes time to really learn everything.

And you gotta get his trust.

He's not gonna go and talk about a company he just acquired.

He doesn't know anything about me.

Sure.

Right.

He can't go and start publicly saying all these things, and then next thing you know, I'm doing something else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think it takes time to.

To really get that trust going.

And some of our last communications, I feel like it's, you know, it's.

It's on board now with everything we're doing, so.

So I think I'm really looking forward to what's next.

Yeah.

Because I think it's going to be more involved, Even more involved, and I think we're heading in a good direction.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You have an absolutely incredible entrepreneurial story, Dr. Juan.

It was.

It was.

It was incredible to have you on the show, and I. I really appreciate your time and coming on and chatting with us and telling me your story, because it is.

It's amazing.

And we're all struggling with health stuff, so.

Super cool.

We got to go there.

Before we end today's show, I want to spend some time talking about Puff.

Tell us about it.

Tell us about the product.

What is it?

Where do we get it?

And it sounds amazing.

And I think I need to just stock my whole.

My whole cupboard with it when I can find it.

I'm in Canada.

I don't.

I don't think.

I've never seen it on the shelves here yet, But I'm sure it's only.

A matter of time in Alberta, maybe on in.

In the east coast, but we'll get there.

Amazing.

We're only mostly in the west, in the.

I'm sorry, in the east coast.

Northeast.

Okay.

That's where we are located.

So we're taking that approach of, like, let's go local and then let's expand from here.

Earlier on, we made the mistake of just saying, ah, let's go national.

And man, that was.

That was lessons learned.

We weren't ready to go national.

Gotcha.

We spent a lot of money and we couldn't pay attention to the details that require.

And we didn't have that much of an experience as to how to launch a product in every state.

So that was a little tough.

So now it's like, no, you know what?

Let's sit back, let's work the Area that we're in where we can understand, learn, and then kind of utilize what we learn and expand.

But peanut man, about the product, right?

It's a protein puff.

Yeah, it's not a peanut puff, it's a protein puff.

And you know what's cool about it, man, is that the way I design it.

I'm, as a scientist, I designed the product.

So I didn't go to a third party to try to and tell them, hey, I need a bar that you know, yeah, has this much protein or whatever.

Instead it's like I had a lot of experience in working with athletes and a lot of experience in working with non athletes athletes as part of my whole 20 years of working with snacks.

And so I learned, I knew a lot about snacks and a little.

And I knew a lot about people's requirements, right.

And people's perception of what they need.

And so I wanted, my first idea was just to come up with something that had the nutrition that will be good for someone that was active but not an athlete.

So basically someone like you, someone like me, that we're, we're not professionals in any, in any way, but we, we do have the same requirements because we are playing with our kids because we're going for a walk or a run or going to the gym.

And so my first idea is like, okay, I gotta come up with some kind of snack that tastes good, number one, but also have some positive nutrition.

Nutrition, especially for someone who's active.

So you have to have protein, so you have to have be low carb, you had to have a high fiber and basically it had to be clean ingredients, no junk.

Right?

Those, those.

That was kind of like the pillars.

But the cool thing that a lot of people don't know about because you read a protein puff, it's just a protein.

It's a protein product.

We made it a plant based protein.

But what's cool about it is that the way I com I did is I combined three different proteins, proteins.

And I did that because I knew scientifically and from all the studies that I've done that plant proteins are not complete proteins.

Okay.

So I needed to combine different proteins so as to make incomplete and not only complete, but also to make it a high level quality complete protein.

And it's a message that we still haven't been able to really get out there because it's complicated for people to even understand that just to say that it's protein right now is good enough.

Yes.

But just it's actually a better protein.

A garbanzo Protein or a jalapeno protein or pea protein.

Yeah, this is the complete.

The complete whole thing.

And, and the other thing on the carbs, because a lot of people say, well, it's low carb, but it's not, like, considered low carb product.

And he says it's not a low carb product, but it's a low glycemic carb product.

And a low glycemic carb product basically is the same as a low carb product, but even better, because now you get the benefits of the sustained energy that you can.

You get from the slow digested carbohydrates.

And, And.

And.

And you don't get the.

The excess calories basically not being used by your body.

So.

So it's a.

It's a pretty cool product, man.

There's a lot of.

There's a lot of science behind it.

It.

I mean, we'll.

We'll kind of try to explain it little by little, but we learned that it's too much for the consumer to.

To.

To know all this stuff.

Well, I'm gonna make you a promise.

The moment I can find it on a shelf here, I will be buying some because actually, I was looking at your flavors, and I really want to try the cheddar jalapeno.

So the moment I can find it, man, I'm gonna go get it.

And.

And I can't wait, because, honestly, I love chips, but if I can eat something that.

That.

That satisfies that crunch, that need for me that's also not crap for my body, I think it might be a huge win.

So you have friends here in Alberta who can't wait.

It's turning into being our number one flavor.

Oh, man, I love cheddar and I love jalapeno.

You throw those things together, we're good.

Dr. Salinas, it's been an honor.

Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your journey.

It's incredible, and I can't wait to.

To see what you do next.

Thanks, Kelly.

Me, I really appreciate this, man.

I mean, pleasure talking to you, bro.

Yeah, me too.

Me too.

Until next time, this has been episode 274 of the Business development podcast, and we will catch you on the flip side.

This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development.

Your business development specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website at www.capital.

see you next time on the Business development podcast.