156: What You Don’t See When Scaling a Supplement Business: Our Key Initiatives for 2026

I’m sharing the standards, the strategy, and the unseen work it takes to keep building BPN the right way. This episode includes the 2026 “Burn the Boats” manifesto, our five key initiatives, and the standards behind quality and product development going into 2026. CHAPTERS 0:00: Intro 7:53: 2026 Brand Manifesto: Burn the Boats 17:25: 5 Key Initiatives (Overview) 18:44: Initiative #1: Unique Brand Positioning 25:36: Initiative #2: Intentional Product Development 30:45: Initiative #3: BPN Podcast Network Expansion 31:19: Initiative #4: Strategic Channel Strategy 36:34: Initiative #5: Position the Business for Scale 1:00:52: Quality Systems You Don’t See 1:14:27: The Truth About Grass-Fed Whey Isolate ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210⁠ FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFE ⁠https://bpn.team/member⁠ IG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠ YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Nick Bare?

  Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's episode, working title is what you don't see while building a supplement brand. I've been thinking a lot about this last couple of weeks on my morning runs, especially post-Ironman. My running volume has decreased significantly, as I've talked about. Strength training has increased, which feels really good. And right now, I'm running about 20 to 25 miles per week. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, five miles every morning.

• 0:47Nick Bare?

  And then Saturday morning is either a five mile or 10 mile run or somewhere in between. Occasionally I'll run more or less, but that is generally what my running training looks like right now.

• 1:02Nick Bare?

  And I do a lot of my reflection during those morning runs. Even now, you know, five mile runs

• 1:14Nick Bare?

  take significantly less time than when I was running nine, 10, 11 plus miles each day. But it still stimulates a lot of just thought and perspective. And for the last couple of years, it's been really powerful for my entrepreneurial journey for BPN. And something I've been thinking about this last couple of weeks, like I said, post-Ironman on these morning runs,

• 1:42Nick Bare?

  is all about how I want to approach 2026. The focus.

• 1:50Nick Bare?

  And for much of 2025, it was fitness content. It was around the Ironman prep and documenting that and the journey of preparing to race an Ironman. 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run. Took a lot of time, built a lot of fitness, accomplished the goal.

• 2:14Nick Bare?

  But going into 2026,

• 2:18Nick Bare?

  What I want to focus on in terms of a lot of the content, what I'm documenting on YouTube and sharing, even the podcast is more of a behind the scenes look into building the brand and BPN. And there's a lot that we do that we don't showcase or share. And there isn't really an intent or reason behind that. It's just because for much of the time, the focus is around the fitness and the prep and the results.

• 2:59Nick Bare?

  But the reality is much of my time, much of my thought process, a lot of my energy, physical and mental, goes into building BPN. And I want to share more of that. And this episode right here kind of lays the foundation for some of what I'll be sharing going into this next year and beyond that. Because it's where a lot of my passion lies and exists. I love building BPN.

• 3:32Nick Bare?

  I've loved building this brand for

• 3:35Nick Bare?

  the last 13 plus years, which is crazy to say, 13 years of

• 3:42Nick Bare?

  of discipline and commitment and consistency of of building.

• 3:48Nick Bare?

  Recently on Instagram, I shared this photo that I came across in just my photo albums on my phone. And it was this this image from 2013, maybe 14, two to three years after starting BPN. And this photo was my brother and my mom. And they were behind this BPN booth.

• 4:18Nick Bare?

  That was located at this CrossFit gym, right outside of our, our local town, Palmyra, Pennsylvania, where me and Preston grew up, right outside of Hershey, Pennsylvania. And while I was in the Army, and I started BPN in 2012, graduated from college in 2013, commissioned the US Army, went right to Fort Benning, Georgia for a year before being stationed at Fort Hood, Texas for my first duty assignment. While I was traveling with the military in and out of training, my family stepped up and truly supported and assisted me in building BPN. And I,

• 4:57Nick Bare?

  I could not have gotten BPN to where it is today. I would not be sitting here right now

• 5:06Nick Bare?

  if it wasn't for a lot of people in my life and that help and that support. You guys are, are much to thank as well. If you consume our content, if you support BPN, you buy the products, we cannot be doing, I cannot be doing what I and we are doing without you. So, thank you. But there's also been people along the way, like my family, like friends, like people who have dropped what they were doing and joined me in this, this purposeful mission of building

• 5:45Nick Bare?

  BPN along the way. This image that I came across from, like I said, 2013, 2014, it means a lot to me. Because at that time, I was either at Fort Benning, Georgia, or Fort Hood, in and out of training, and my family was going to these local gyms and CrossFit competitions and events and setting up a booth and laying out product, BPN product, to try to build the brand.

• 6:16Nick Bare?

  And it wasn't super successful. There are a few people who might have been interested and a few people who might have purchased. But it means a lot to me. And this, this journey over the last 13 plus years has been so hard, so challenging, but also so fulfilling and rewarding. And I believe a lot of the things that we do behind the scenes should be talked about more often, and that's what I want to do with some of the content moving forward. Now, every year for the last couple of years, I've created a brand manifesto before we enter a new year and I share it with the BPN team. And I recently drafted the 2026 brand manifesto.

• 7:02Nick Bare?

  I shared it with the team. Now I'll share it with you guys. Now, the brand manifesto for me, it sets the, the tone, it lays the foundation. It establishes the standard and expectations going into a new year. So I'm going to read it first and then we'll talk about it a little bit. But this is meant to be powerful. It's meant to be inspirational. It's meant to really call everyone to action as a part of this team. And say, hey, this is what we're going to do this year. So if you want to be a part of this, let's go.

• 7:46Nick Bare?

  If you don't, that's okay. But here's where we're going. Here's where we're, we're heading. Here's how we're getting there. So 2026 BPN Brand Manifesto. Burn the boats is a powerful metaphor for total commitment, meaning to eliminate all options for retreat.

• 8:10Nick Bare?

  Creating a point of no return to force complete focus on achieving a goal. Let's burn the boats as we prepare for battle entering 2026. There's a fine line that separates deliberate execution and disruptive differentiation for a brand on a mission to take a stance and leave a legacy. We can't spend this next year sitting back and playing it safe. This is our year to generate influential momentum. A force of this magnitude doesn't happen on its own or by chance. It is thoughtfully planned, prepared, and executed collectively as a team. It is calculated and predicted. It is proven by effort and sheer work.

• 8:55Nick Bare?

  Don't rely on yourself to accomplish this task. Lean on your team to deliver the results. Organizations that attempt to run the same playbook year after year die young. And teams that refuse to pivot when the writing is on the wall are cowards. We are courageous warriors. We welcome change because we know it breaks the brittle and reinforces the strong. We know who we are, what we stand for, and what we are capable of.

• 9:27Nick Bare?

  Lack of intentionality leads to a repetition of what is easiest. And this year should be hard. It should challenge you more than you've ever been challenged before. Your ability will be stretched and your limits will be tested. There will be tough days along the way, but that is why we are here. For the committed doesn't attract mediocrity. It despises it. We rejoice in our suffering, knowing that it produces endurance. This business has been built from the ground up. The foundation is steady and we are unwavering in the pursuit. Like a house that has been built on a rock, there is wisdom behind the thoughts, words, and practices that we demonstrate.

• 10:12Nick Bare?

  That wisdom will guide our trajectory. Step into 2026 with ambition. Rid yourself of pride and arrogance. Embody humility and show up every single day as a selfless leader to those around you. We are all responsible for what is accomplished in the next year, and that accountability starts now.

• 10:37Nick Bare?

  Go one more. So I shared that on Instagram

• 10:44Nick Bare?

  last week.

• 10:47Nick Bare?

  Feedback was great. There's one comment, though,

• 10:51Nick Bare?

  that made me laugh. And it made me laugh because it's true. But I want to explain. The comment said, "You guys sell supplements. Chill, you aren't storming the beaches of Normandy." And I read this, I was like, "Come on, man." And I thought, you know what? That's true. We do sell supplements.

• 11:16Nick Bare?

  And we aren't storming the beaches of Normandy. You got me there.

• 11:21Nick Bare?

  However,

• 11:25Nick Bare?

  that is a perspective.

• 11:28Nick Bare?

  But it doesn't take into account the power of leadership.

• 11:35Nick Bare?

  Leadership is influence. And that influence has the ability to shift the trajectory for good or evil of an organization, team members,

• 11:52Nick Bare?

  individuals. There is a lot of power in leadership and influence.

• 12:02Nick Bare?

  And what I wanted to convey in this brand manifesto, and I believe that it did,

• 12:08Nick Bare?

  was passion and purpose. And the truth is that when you have true, authentic passion and purpose, it drives and creates potential.

• 12:20Nick Bare?

  It's really hard to have potential

• 12:24Nick Bare?

  without

• 12:26Nick Bare?

  passion and purpose.

• 12:30Nick Bare?

  And you have to believe, you must believe in what you're doing and why.

• 12:36Nick Bare?

  And it can't be just the leader or the leadership team that believes. It has to be everyone in the organization.

• 12:45Nick Bare?

  I've been a part of teams, I've been a part of organizations in the past where some people are bought in and some people aren't. And some people drink the Kool-Aid and some people don't. And that divide

• 13:02Nick Bare?

  limits the potential, it limits the outcome of the organization. It drives more towards failure than success. So yes, we do sell supplements and we aren't storming the beaches of Normandy. But I take this stuff serious. Truly. Serious.

• 13:24Nick Bare?

  I believe too many people sell themselves short.

• 13:29Nick Bare?

  They say, I'm just a blank, you can insert any job title there. I'm just a salesman. I'm just a teacher, I'm just a soldier, I'm just a dentist, I'm just a garbage man, I'm just

• 13:51Nick Bare?

  I'm just that, I'm just this. When you say those words, as my good friend Chad Wright says, your tongue is your rudder. When you belittle yourself, you belittle your team, you belittle what you are trying to accomplish. You instantaneously reduce the potential of what you can accomplish. Your tongue is your rudder. So if we were to say we just sell supplements, it limits what we can actually accomplish. Because we reduce ourselves and our ability and what we are pursuing. Your tongue is your rudder.

• 14:39Nick Bare?

  I was recently listening to the Founder's Podcast, which is one of my favorites. It's hosted by David Senra.

• 14:47Nick Bare?

  And he was interviewing Todd Graves, who is the founder of Canes Chicken Fingers.

• 14:58Nick Bare?

  And Todd Graves has built an absolutely amazing business. And owns most of the company still, which is very rare. Typically, at that size and scale, a founder has

• 15:14Nick Bare?

  sold minority or majority of the company partnered with some sort of investor, potentially private equity. But Todd Graves has not. He owns majority of the company still. And Todd Graves talks about his passion and purpose behind building Canes. And he calls it a chicken finger dream.

• 15:42Nick Bare?

  If someone told Todd Graves in the beginning, dude, chill. You just sell chicken fingers. It's not that big of a deal. That would have limited, or could have limited, if Todd Graves would have bought into it, his potential, and he wouldn't be nearly where he is today. All great organizations, all great individuals, all great teams

• 16:07Nick Bare?

  believe in what they are doing so much, and they have to. Because if they didn't, they never would get to where

• 16:15Nick Bare?

  they want to be. So don't sell yourself short. Don't say, I'm just a I just do. No. Like truly, have some confidence in it. Own it. Have some real passion and purpose behind it. That's what this brand manifesto for me is all about. Let's burn the boats as we prepare for battle entering 2026.

• 16:44Nick Bare?

  The entrepreneurial journey is a battle. There are highs, there are lows. There are hard days and there are easy days.

• 16:53Nick Bare?

  The truth is that founders and key team members of an organization

• 16:59Nick Bare?

  behind a business need to see, feel and understand passion and purpose. Because without it, there is little, potentially no potential.

• 17:16Nick Bare?

  So we recently as a team, as a leadership team, met and

• 17:22Nick Bare?

  planned out 2026. And we typically do this after Black Friday, end of November, going into December. We plan out our, our key initiatives for the year. And I want to share our key initiatives with you guys. We're not going to give too much away, but high level, there are five key initiatives that I want to share. And we do this for alignment within the organization. This is what we're all working towards and working on going into this next year. So as the founder and CEO of the business, what I do collectively with the leadership team is we work together to develop these key initiatives.

• 18:05Nick Bare?

  And then everyone goes and creates strategy and tactics within their department

• 18:12Nick Bare?

  that are aligned with these key initiatives. And then we all come back together to build out a plan, a strategy, tactics of how we're working together to bring these key initiatives to life. So last couple of weeks, we, we met and we discussed what we want to go after in 2026. And this is not going to share everything, but it's like I said, more high level. So the first key initiative is to bring to life unique brand positioning. So there's a few components here. The first is to balance the content, the marketing, the brand positioning of strength and endurance.

• 18:56Nick Bare?

  Really leaning back into hybrid training and the hybrid athlete, which I'll get to a little bit more here in a bit more detail. But really bringing strength back into the brand in a more meaningful way as we enter 2026. Because much of 2025 was hyper focused on endurance. Marathons, ultras, triathlons, the Ironman prep, for example. And it had great results. We, we, in our opinion, were able to own more of the endurance market. But as a brand and where we want to be positioned,

• 19:41Nick Bare?

  we are hybrid at our core. So bringing endurance and strength back into the brand in a more meaningful way. Hybrid. The second component of this first key initiative is balancing the heart and the head. What do I mean by that? If I think of heart behind a brand, it is, it's living. There's a heartbeat to it. It's alive. It's got DNA. It bleeds. It's aspirational. There's a, there's an attraction to it.

• 20:21Nick Bare?

  Like the heart components of BPN are go on more. There's emotion behind it. For the committed. It is the go on more ultra. These documentaries that we produce, these films that we produce, the content that we produce, storytelling behind our athletes and our partners. Like there's, there's heart there. Aspirational elements. And then there's a head element to brand and marketing. When I think of head, I think of.

• 21:02Nick Bare?

  Product education, formulations, the science, the benefits. It's more product focused, more educational focused. So heart being aspirational, head being educational.

• 21:20Nick Bare?

  We typically lean really heavy into heart, the aspirational element of the brand. Much of that being around Go On More.

• 21:30Nick Bare?

  But again, our goal going into this next year is to find a balance between the heart and the head. How do we talk more about products? How do we showcase our products in a more meaningful way, a more BPN way? Utilize the creative team and storytelling to highlight the products just as much as we highlight the athletes and the partners. And the third component of that first key initiative is community and in real life activations. So there are some brand collaborations that we're working right now. Uh, there are some in real life activations that we're working right now. The Austin Marathon coming up is one of those.

• 22:14Nick Bare?

  So we are the on course nutrition sponsor of the Austin Half, which is in January. The Austin Full, which is in February. Uh, we have the Go On More Ultra, which is April 10th at Bear Ranch. That's an in real life activation. Uh, we are the on course nutrition sponsor of the Pittsburgh Marathon, which is the beginning of May, which I'm super excited about. The Pittsburgh Marathon makes sense for us because Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is 45 minutes away from where I went to college, Indiana, Pennsylvania, at IUP. It's essentially right in our backyard of where BPN was born and got started.

• 22:57Nick Bare?

  So there's a hometown founder's story, roots narrative there that we, we want to lean into.

• 23:07Nick Bare?

  And Pennsylvania is just like where it all started for me. So doing the Pittsburgh Marathon just makes sense. And then we'll have some other key uh, community building events and in real life activations in 2026. But it's also balancing not doing too many, but doing enough. And when it comes to in real life activations in community building, I was just talking to the team about this two weeks ago. You know, a few weeks ago, we were in Nashville, Tennessee. We did an event with uh, The Exchange, which is a running store in East Nashville, super cool running store. They sell VPN products.

• 23:49Nick Bare?

  And we did an event with them, which was called the shortest day of the year, longest run of your life. And it was uh, at this old abandoned airstrip by Shelby Bottoms Park, East Nashville. I used to do a lot of my running at this park and on this airstrip when we lived there. The, the airstrip itself, I believe is like 1.2 mile loop. And I've done like 22 mile marathon prep workouts on this loop. It's beautiful there. And at this event itself, there were 400 people. So you take an event like that.

• 24:33Nick Bare?

  And then you compare it to an event like the Austin or Pittsburgh Marathon, where there's say 40,000 ish people. Very different, 400 people versus 40,000 people. The way that you show up for the community and you activate those events is very different. But after coming off of the event in Nashville, one of the things I told the team was that it was very obvious that the, the conversations, the connection, the impact that we were able to make and feel at that event in Nashville was much larger than some of these marathons that we sponsor.

• 25:17Nick Bare?

  It's a fraction of the people, but the impact you can create on a smaller scale, a more intimate scale, in my opinion, can be more meaningful. So there's a time and place for both. There's a time and place for small events, there's a time and place for large events.

• 25:36Nick Bare?

  As long as they're done intentionally and strategically, they can both be super powerful.

• 25:43Nick Bare?

  The second key initiative is intentional product development.

• 25:51Nick Bare?

  One of the products we're launching in March of 2026 is a whey protein isolate, grass-fed whey protein isolate in two flavors, chocolate and vanilla. Super excited about that one. We've been working on that product for quite some time now. And I'll dive into a little bit more detail throughout this episode about why it's taken us so long to bring that product to life and some of the things we learned in that process.

• 26:22Nick Bare?

  Our strength collection that we're launching in the summer of 2026. This is part of, you know,

• 26:34Nick Bare?

  our first key initiative of leaning back into hybrid fully, bringing strength back into the brand in a more meaningful way. We're launching, or I should say relaunching our strength products in the summer of 2026. So right now, we have pre-workout. It's called Flight. Flight was our first product we ever developed in 2012. Since 2012, the formula has changed and evolved.

• 27:03Nick Bare?

  But Flight has always been like our flagship product, our pre-workout.

• 27:09Nick Bare?

  We used to have a muscle pump enhancer called Endo Pump. And we have a recovery supplement called Recover, which is branched-chain amino acids, essential amino acids, carnitine, L-tart, choline. Tart cherry. It's an incredible recovery supplement, amino acid supplement. Well, we're kind of rebranding those three products

• 27:35Nick Bare?

  into what we're calling the Strength Collection.

• 27:39Nick Bare?

  So our pre workout, which is now flight, will just be rebranded into pre.

• 27:47Nick Bare?

  We're actually bringing a pump supplement back, which I'm sure a lot of people are excited about because when we discontinued Endo Pump, there were a lot of disappointed people.

• 27:58Nick Bare?

  A lot of disappointed people. So we're bringing pump back. It's just going to be called pump. It's a different formula. It's a better formula. The formula is incredible. And then our supplement called Recover is getting rebranded to Post. So we will have pre, pump and post, and they will be sold separately, but also as a, a collection. And this is our strength collection that we are launching slash relaunching in the summer of 2026. Now, one of the reasons that we discontinued Endo Pump,

• 28:34Nick Bare?

  almost a year ago now, maybe, maybe it has been a year.

• 28:40Nick Bare?

  Which you can still get on Amazon. You can still get Endo Pump on our Amazon page until it's sold out. But one of the reasons, main reason we discontinued Endo Pump is because as we started to move the brand more into a endurance direction, the thought process was that having a pump supplement was a distraction away from the endurance consumer, the endurance market, and made our branding confusing. Well, as we are refocusing it back on hybrid, and we're bringing strength training back into the brand in a more meaningful way, it makes sense to bring pump back.

• 29:25Nick Bare?

  So we will have pre, pump and post

• 29:30Nick Bare?

  launching under the strength collection in 2026, summer of 2026. And then

• 29:39Nick Bare?

  Within intentional product development, we are building out, still building out our strategy for our RTD, our Ready to Drink. So as you might know, G1M Sport and G1M Sport Plus have been some of our best-selling products. Carbohydrates, electrolytes, and then in the plus version, carbohydrates, electrolytes, caffeine, no tropics. And we now offer those in RTDs, like bottled beverages, sold exclusively on Amazon. So you can get 12 packs of G1M Sport RTDs on Amazon, you can get 12 packs of G1M Sport Plus on Amazon.

• 30:24Nick Bare?

  So one of our key initiatives in 2026 is continuing to build out that strategy for expansion on Amazon, but also retail opportunities. So that's key initiative number two. Key initiative number three is a BPN Podcast Network expansion. This is something that we started in 2025. It's right now under our network. We have my podcast, the Nick Bear Podcast. We have the Consistently Good Podcast, which is hosted by Jeff Cunningham. That's an endurance running focus podcast, and we want to continue to expand that network

• 31:08Nick Bare?

  going into 2026 and beyond. So it's bringing you on more podcasts, more hosts that align with BPN's mission, purpose, values, and content direction to just keep growing that network. Key initiative number four is to execute thoughtful and strategic channel strategy.

• 31:30Nick Bare?

  So this is between, you know, we think about our distribution for BPN. We have digital. We have retail and then international. So we kind of look at distribution in three different buckets. In terms of digital, we have our website and we have our Amazon storefront. Right now, our digital sales are about a 50 50 split between our website and Amazon. Amazon has become a meaningful

• 32:02Nick Bare?

  distribution channel for BPN over these last couple of years. Doing just as much volume monthly as our website's doing. And then when it comes to retail, we want retail to be 10 to 15% of our business.

• 32:20Nick Bare?

  So part of our strategy going into this next year is to bring on more retailers. But more importantly, to invest in our current retail partners to grow those relationships. Some of our retail partners right now, we have HEB. He was a great partner to us. We move a lot of product in HEB grocery stores. We have Wegmans grocery stores, Dick's Sporting Goods, Shields.

• 32:54Nick Bare?

  We, we've been investing a lot into the Dick's Sporting Good

• 33:02Nick Bare?

  relationship. And part of us sponsoring the Pittsburgh Marathon or being the on course nutrition for the Pittsburgh Marathon is because Dick's Sporting Good or DSG is the main sponsor of the Pittsburgh Marathon. So our goal is to really build that relationship with Dick's Sporting Goods. So if you have a Dick's Sporting Good around you, check to see if they have BPN products right now. Uh, we're trying to get more products into Dick's Sporting Good. But if you're wondering where you can buy a BPN product in retail. If you go on our website, scroll to the bottom. There's a store locator link. You can click on that, put in your zip code or your address,

• 33:45Nick Bare?

  and you can find what stores in your area are selling BPN products. So that's an easy way to figure out who, where and what is distributing BPN supplements.

• 34:00Nick Bare?

  So retail, we want to be about 10 to 15% of the business, which we're in that ballpark right now. And I said, the focus is relationship building and velocity product, not necessarily just trying to get into more doors. And then the third channel strategy is international. So right now, we have a great relationship with iHerb. You can buy BPN products internationally on iHerb's website. But we have a focused UK effort as well.

• 34:36Nick Bare?

  So we will be standing up a UK Shopify store

• 34:43Nick Bare?

  in early 2026.

• 34:47Nick Bare?

  And for the last like two years, we've been really working on this distribution strategy. So going into different countries,

• 34:58Nick Bare?

  it's much more complicated and complex than you would think. Because different countries have different regulations

• 35:06Nick Bare?

  of label compliance, of ingredients, of claims. You know, it's, it's the supplement industry is really

• 35:16Nick Bare?

  country by country, case specific. So in order to really do this right, because we know we have a huge audience and demand for BPN products in the UK. We spent the last two years preparing for this launch, which we're about to do in a more meaningful way going into this next year. Right now, you can buy

• 35:39Nick Bare?

  BPN supplements on Amazon UK. But we'll be launching our website so you can buy apparel as well. But over these last two years, we have worked with UK Council. We have sourced a UK supplement manufacturer. We have a partner over in the UK who's going to be ready and able to ship and fulfill orders. So we're bringing all this together. What's taken the most time, I'd say, is compliance, like legal compliance, getting labels vetted and approved.

• 36:17Nick Bare?

  Working with our manufacturing partners over in the UK so that we can rule this out in the most meaningful and best way possible. We don't want to take any shortcuts. We don't want to rush it. We wanted to do it right so we can really build the BPN brand in the UK in 2026. And the fifth key initiative for this next year is to appropriately position the business for scale. And this has two buckets, in our opinion, people and systems. So it is what team members need hired? What people do we need to go look for? Bring on recruiting agencies to help source?

• 37:02Nick Bare?

  What people do we need? Who do we need? And what systems need built or implemented for scale? So those are our five key initiatives. The first, bring to life unique brand positioning. Two, intentional product development. Three, podcast network expansion. Four, execute a thoughtful and strategic channel strategy. And five, appropriately position business for scale. You know, when it comes to building and leading a brand, something that you've never or never do arrive at is a complete picture of leadership.

• 37:44Nick Bare?

  Leadership and leading people, leading teams, leading an organization is an ever-evolving, changing, challenging role to be in. It's fun. It's hard. It's exciting. It's challenging. It's all of the things. And it's something that I'm consistently learning and studying to try to improve and get better. And it will be like that for the rest of my life.

• 38:15Nick Bare?

  I have a, a, uh,

• 38:19Nick Bare?

  opinion on leadership that I believe that we are all called to lead in different capacities. Not everyone is called to be a leader for a large group of people, or teams, or an organization. But within our lives, we all have the responsibility to lead. Whether that's leading ourself, leading our family, leading our partner, our spouse, leading our children, leading a small organization, leading our community. Like, we are all called in some capacity, whether small or large. And that does not take away from the individual at all. We're all called in some capacity to lead.

• 39:00Nick Bare?

  I've been studying a lot of John Maxwell's leadership books and principles lately.

• 39:06Nick Bare?

  Uh, the book that I'm reading right now by John Maxwell is called The Five Levels of Leadership, which I highly recommend. But John Maxwell says that leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. Leadership isn't about your title, but your ability to positively impact others by adding value, building relationships, serving first, and developing character.

• 39:36Nick Bare?

  So in the book, The Five Levels of Leadership, as it sounds, there are five levels of leadership that John Maxwell identifies.

• 39:48Nick Bare?

  And what I find is most interesting about this book,

• 39:53Nick Bare?

  also very humbling at the same time, is a realization that you as an individual in a leadership role,

• 40:02Nick Bare?

  the level of leadership that you are on, these five levels I'm about to share as John Maxwell lays out,

• 40:09Nick Bare?

  it is person by person case in basis. You might be on a level three or four in terms of leadership with an individual that you've been working with for three, four, or five years. But for someone who you just started leading and working with yesterday, you have to start at level one. And you have to gain the trust and confidence from that individual over time.

• 40:39Nick Bare?

  So, once you, like I said, you don't ever arrive to the pinnacle or the peak of leadership. Because it depends on the people that you are leading. That's what makes leadership so unique.

• 40:54Nick Bare?

  It's not always objective. There is a subjective nature to it. Because we're dealing with people, we're dealing with emotions, we're dealing with with just individuals, differences in individuals. So, the first position is called position. Or the first level is called position. People follow you because they have to. You're in a leadership role, a leadership position. The second level you graduate to is called permission. People follow you because they want to, not just because they have to.

• 41:29Nick Bare?

  The third level is called production. People follow because of what you have done for the organization. You are competent, you have achieved, you have succeeded in some way.

• 41:42Nick Bare?

  The fourth level is people development. People follow because of what you have done for them.

• 41:49Nick Bare?

  And then the fifth level, this is the highest level you can achieve, which is called pinnacle. People follow because of who you are and what you represent.

• 42:02Nick Bare?

  Now, most leaders don't reach level five, which is pinnacle.

• 42:09Nick Bare?

  And when you reach level five, as the way John Maxwell describes in this book, this is the one level of leadership where even when someone comes in day one, you are probably a level five to them, based off of what they know about you, what people say about you, your experience.

• 42:32Nick Bare?

  They follow you because of who you are and what you represent. It is well-known, you are well-known, across the organization, or maybe even beyond the organization.

• 42:47Nick Bare?

  The thing about leadership is that when you are in a leadership role, you are held to a higher standard.

• 42:59Nick Bare?

  I think sometimes people want to be in a leadership role because of the position, the title, and potentially the salary or the benefits that come along with that title, that position.

• 43:12Nick Bare?

  But leadership is so much more than that. Leadership is influence. There is responsibility. If you want to be a leader, you have to be willing and able to accept the fact that you'll be held to a higher standard.

• 43:29Nick Bare?

  As John Maxwell says, "Leaders must hold themselves to a higher standard than their followers because leadership is a trust, not a right. Requiring them to lead themselves first. Act as change agents and build credibility by consistently modeling discipline, integrity, and results. Their actions, even when no one is watching, set the cultural bar and demonstrate what's truly valued, proving they can lead others by first leading themselves well. If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead other people."

• 44:09Nick Bare?

  That is the bare minimum. If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead anyone else. If you lead yourself to failure, you will lead other people to failure.

• 44:23Nick Bare?

  One of the reasons I take the 2026 BPN Brand Manifesto so serious

• 44:32Nick Bare?

  and that it's more than selling supplements. And we're not storming the beaches of Normandy, but it feels that way.

• 44:41Nick Bare?

  I have that passion. I have that purpose behind it. Again, because I know that that passion and purpose

• 44:49Nick Bare?

  has the ability to raise or limit or lower the potential.

• 44:57Nick Bare?

  Leadership is setting a standard and holding a standard.

• 45:02Nick Bare?

  It's to be a role model. It's to be an example.

• 45:08Nick Bare?

  It's one of the things I've said this last couple of years. It's really resonated with people. Set the standard, hold the standard. Like the sweatshirt that I'm literally wearing right now, the front says go on more, but the back says, set the standard, hold the standard. And a lot of people connected and resonated with that, loved it.

• 45:28Nick Bare?

  But it means much more than I think a lot of people believe.

• 45:34Nick Bare?

  Setting and holding a standard is not just saying you're gonna go run a marathon in 12 weeks and then train for that marathon in 12 weeks.

• 45:46Nick Bare?

  Setting and the holding the standard is not

• 45:49Nick Bare?

  just saying you're gonna get

• 45:52Nick Bare?

  a certain job promotion or certain pay raise by the end of the year and then working to accomplish and achieve those things.

• 46:00Nick Bare?

  Setting the standard and holding the standard is not circumstance or situational related at all. It is holistic. It is all encompassing. The way you do one thing is the way that you do everything. That's why I say I believe it means more than most people think. It's not just being disciplined with their fitness. It's not just being disciplined with their work. It's not just being disciplined with their health and their diet. It is everything. It is being a role model. It is being an example. You can't say that you set a standard and hold a standard in being a stud athlete and be disciplined and putting all the work in.

• 46:44Nick Bare?

  But in the same time,

• 46:47Nick Bare?

  being a piece of crap husband

• 46:51Nick Bare?

  and father

• 46:53Nick Bare?

  and leader

• 46:55Nick Bare?

  or

• 46:57Nick Bare?

  or just a selfless individual within the community.

• 47:06Nick Bare?

  If you are great in the way that you act in one thing, but not in another, you have no standard. You are standard-less.

• 47:18Nick Bare?

  If you say that you set a standard and you hold the standard, you do it in everything that you do, every part of your life. That's what gets me so jacked up about leading a team and building a business and a brand. It's because we have the opportunity, I have the opportunity and the responsibility to set a standard and hold the standard and be a role model, to be an example. Even when it's not cool, even when it's not flashy, even when it's not trendy, there's durability and there's endurance and there's perseverance in that.

• 47:55Nick Bare?

  And that endurance and that perseverance,

• 48:01Nick Bare?

  that builds character. So I have three D's going this next year. Those D's are differentiation, disruption, and distribution. And these three D's are closely associated with our 2026 BPN key initiatives.

• 48:25Nick Bare?

  Differentiation, disruption, distribution. Those three D's are top of mind for me going this next year. And it guides our vision of what we say yes to, but more importantly, what we say no to.

• 48:41Nick Bare?

  Some notes on each one of those. Differentiation, differentiation doesn't need to be new, but it does have to be different.

• 48:51Nick Bare?

  I think a lot of times when people hear differentiation, like you have to create some sort of differentiation in a marketplace, everyone instantly thinks innovation, new, novelty. But I would disagree. I think it has to be ownable, it has to be unique, it has to be authentic to your brand and organization, and it has to be different.

• 49:22Nick Bare?

  Apple, for example, didn't launch the first smartphone or cellular device, but they did it differently.

• 49:36Nick Bare?

  To be a pioneer, to be a trailblazer, you don't have to be first. But you have to be unique, authentic, and you have to do it better. You have to be the best.

• 49:47Nick Bare?

  That's how I view differentiation. Disruption. Disruption is not, and we've been disruptive in this way before. I think back to the Austin Marathon 2024. We drove our VPN van downtown Austin,

• 50:08Nick Bare?

  post-shakeout run in this back street, opened the back doors and we were throwing out go bars and go gels and go on more hats everywhere. And it was chaos. There were like thousands of people who surrounded our van, our truck, and we handed out thousands of hats. And that was pure disruption in the most chaotic sense.

• 50:32Nick Bare?

  But disruption does not have to be chaotic. It can be, and I believe should be, orderly.

• 50:40Nick Bare?

  Disruption is not going in and throwing something that explodes and then dispersing everyone in pure chaos. Disruption is to influence change and/or challenge an existing market.

• 50:58Nick Bare?

  I believe for a brand to be successful, they have to be disruptive and it has to change or challenge an existing market. And then the third D, distribution. It's finding out where our customers are and how we serve them best. It's retail opportunities. It's, it's retail opportunities for not just loyal and existing customers, but also acquiring new customers.

• 51:27Nick Bare?

  It is Amazon, it is UK and additional international opportunities. Again, viewing these distribution opportunities, not just in terms of how do we offer and sell our products to existing customers for convenience of distribution, but also how can we?

• 51:49Nick Bare?

  Acquire and get in front of new consumers through effective distribution strategy.

• 51:58Nick Bare?

  Those are the three D's we're focused on differentiation, disruption, distribution.

• 52:05Nick Bare?

  So the next thing I want to talk about that one of our

• 52:10Nick Bare?

  great advisors in the business, Chris Hickey, always talks about is test, learn, and apply. He's always telling us to test, learn, and apply.

• 52:22Nick Bare?

  If there's anything I've learned over these last 13 plus years, when it comes to building a business and being an entrepreneur, is that growth is not always linear.

• 52:33Nick Bare?

  And we shouldn't expect it to be.

• 52:36Nick Bare?

  If you look at a chart in terms of growth and scale in time,

• 52:43Nick Bare?

  that charted graph is not always going to go from bottom left to top right in a linear fashion. There are peaks, there are valleys, there's highs, there are lows. Just like in a marathon prep build, just like when it comes to gaining or losing weight, some days you'll be a little heavier, some days you'll be a little lighter, but we look at trends over time. The way that I track business growth, and I believe is a healthy way to track it, is you look at trends over time. Over a long period of time, we should see that correlation between time and growth going from bottom left to top right.

• 53:28Nick Bare?

  If it goes the opposite direction, that's a failing business. You don't want that. But there's going to be higher moments and then lower moments. And this is because of testing,

• 53:40Nick Bare?

  new strategies, new products, new initiatives. You learn from those tests and then you apply a new strategy based off of what you've learned. In the military, we would have what were called AARs, after action reviews. And it was part of our eight step training model. So after every

• 54:02Nick Bare?

  Mission that we would run when we were out in training.

• 54:08Nick Bare?

  We would reconvene post mission. And we'd have an after action review and AAR. We talked about what was supposed to happen. What actually happened? What went right? What went wrong? And then how do we improve to get better? And how do we correct the things that went wrong? So they don't go wrong the next time.

• 54:33Nick Bare?

  Building a business is the same way. We're not running missions necessarily, but we're running strategies and tactics.

• 54:43Nick Bare?

  In hopes of getting better and improving. So we test, we learn from those tests and then we apply what we've learned. One of the things that we've learned over this last year or two.

• 54:56Nick Bare?

  Is that we are meant to be a hybrid brand.

• 55:01Nick Bare?

  And I say this as humbly as possible.

• 55:05Nick Bare?

  I don't think that every brand out there can be a hybrid brand, whether they want to or not.

• 55:12Nick Bare?

  Because for some brands, as much as they want to be a hybrid brand. Being a brand that balances strength and endurance very well. It has to be authentic to them. They have to believe it, they have to live it, to practice it.

• 55:27Nick Bare?

  It has to connect with their audience and their consumer. And for BPN, I believe that we have the responsibility and the opportunity to be the best hybrid brand in the world.

• 55:44Nick Bare?

  In 2025, we hyper focused on endurance. We went all into endurance.

• 55:51Nick Bare?

  And there was a lot of wins. There was a lot of growth there. We took over more of the endurance market. We launched new endurance products that became very successful. Some of our best selling products that we have within the BPN product portfolio. But we also learned a lot and we're applying some of those learnings going into 2026. And those learnings were that we are a much better positioned brand. We do much better when we are speaking into endurance and strength. And that's what's guiding some of the application of leaning back into

• 56:34Nick Bare?

  being a balanced strength and endurance brand in this next year and for the foreseeable future. That's one of the reasons we're bringing back the Strength Collection in the summer of 2026. And a lot of this thought process was happening while I was actually in Ironman prep. Now, I was feeling it. I was, I was missing strength training myself. I missed seeing it in the brand content. I could tell within our community and just the engagement with the brand,

• 57:12Nick Bare?

  there was a missing element and that element was just the, the raw grittiness feel of strength. I love like the hybrid training lifestyle. And that last week of Ironman prep, my last bike workout ever of the prep in HQ before packing up the bike and saying it to Arizona. When I was on the bike, I watched the Pumping Iron documentary from the 1970s, the golden era of bodybuilding. If you've ever watched the Pumping Iron documentary, you gotta watch it.

• 57:54Nick Bare?

  And as I was watching this documentary with all the best bodybuilders of the time, it really confirmed for me that we gotta bring strength training back into the brand in a more meaningful way. It just feels right.

• 58:14Nick Bare?

  That documentary got me so pumped up, no pun intended, for this next year.

• 58:23Nick Bare?

  And it's not a hard pivot or a hard shift in terms of brand, content, and direction. It's just a reintroduction into what we will be talking about and showcasing based off of testing, learning, and applying. Building a business, building a brand, being an entrepreneur.

• 58:47Nick Bare?

  If you go into it with ego and you want to manhandle a situation or control the vision, and you ignore the feedback from data, from analytics, from consumer feedback, from just a feel, you're doing yourself, the brand, and the consumer a disservice. Now, one of the things that we don't talk about enough here at BPN is quality. And the systems we have in place to ensure quality.

• 59:28Nick Bare?

  And this goes back to our first key initiative for 2026, Bring to Life: Unique Brand Positioning. The second component of that, as I mentioned, was heart versus the head. Heart being aspirational, head being educational.

• 59:48Nick Bare?

  Now, there's a lot of things we do here at BPN in terms of ingredient sourcing,

• 59:55Nick Bare?

  manufacturing, testing, that we don't talk about ever. But we do it because it's the right thing to do.

• 1:00:05Nick Bare?

  And the team and I were talking a few weeks ago about how we can start incorporating more of this information into our brand content, into our marketing content. Not because we do it because it's meant to sell products. We do a lot of these things I'm about to talk about because we truly believe it is the right thing to do. If we're going to create a product, it should be the best product we can create in terms of formula, in terms of efficacy, in terms of application, function, flavor. And then we should make sure that it stands up to the most stringent testing and quality

• 1:00:48Nick Bare?

  programs so that our consumers are safe and they can trust that what we are selling is going to help them and not hurt them. So I want to talk a little bit about quality before I dive into some of the things we do for the products that you might not know about. What is quality? Quality is table stakes. Quality is not a competitive advantage or differentiator. I want to make that clear. Quality should be expected. If somebody is using quality as their competitive advantage or differentiator, chances are

• 1:01:32Nick Bare?

  they don't have a quality product or service. And this is why we just haven't talked much about quality in the past because we believe it is table stakes. It is the bare minimum. It is expected. You will not succeed without a quality product or service. William A. Foster once said that "quality is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution." Steve Jobs also said, "Customers don't form their opinions on quality from marketing."

• 1:02:14Nick Bare?

  Read that one more time. Customers don't form their opinions on quality for marketing. They form their opinions on quality from their own experience with the products or the services. One can spend enormous amounts of money on quality. One can win every quality award there is. And yet, if the products don't live up to it, customers will not keep that opinion for long in their minds. So where we have to start is with our products and services, not with our marketing department.

• 1:02:44Nick Bare?

  Marketing is important. But products and services, the intentionality behind the formulation and development of those is much more, much more, a million times more important than the marketing behind them.

• 1:03:02Nick Bare?

  Quality is the way we do everything.

• 1:03:05Nick Bare?

  It's not just how we talk about what we do, it's how we actually do it.

• 1:03:11Nick Bare?

  So that's what I believe quality is. Quality is everything. It's expected, it's a bare minimum.

• 1:03:19Nick Bare?

  So with one of our components of our key initiatives being balancing the heart versus the head. I mean, it does become challenging in terms of our, our brand team and our marketing team working closely together to making sure we have the aspirational DNA heartbeat element of the brand. But then also, let's talk about the educational components of our products and how to use them and what makes them different. And some of the testing and the sourcing that we do.

• 1:03:54Nick Bare?

  For example, we don't do these things to promote or market, but because it is the right thing to do. We are enrolled in the NSF Certified for Sport Program.

• 1:04:06Nick Bare?

  All of our products are tested for Banned prohibited substances by NSF certified for sport. So if you are a professional athlete, military, law enforcement collegiate athlete, you're subject to regular drug testing, or you're an individual who just wants to ensure that their products don't have banned or prohibited substances in them, you can rest assure that all of our products are tested and certified for NSF certified for sport. They are the only independent third-party certification program recognized by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, USADA. And we verify that these products do not contain unsafe

• 1:04:50Nick Bare?

  levels of contaminants, prohibited substances, or masking agents. And what is on the label matches what is in the product. Now, part of being enrolled the NSF certified for sport program, we also have to be and are enrolled in the NSF 229 certification. So this certification verifies that the product's label or nutritional panel on the backside of the product accurately reflects the ingredients listed such as vitamins, minerals, and botanical extracts. And the product is free from harmful contaminants like heavy metals, pathogens, and mycotoxins.

• 1:05:33Nick Bare?

  We spend a lot of money every year through some of these testing certification programs. And we do it because it's the right thing to do. So all of our supplements are NSF certified for sport. That's the first thing I want to talk about that we do. And these are just the third-party testing certifications we do. And this is outside of

• 1:06:01Nick Bare?

  the due diligence and the time we spend on raw material sourcing and testing, manufacturing, sourcing, testing, relationship building, our supply chain team. Like, there's a lot that goes in behind the scenes of bringing these products to life. And not just research and development, but ensuring they are safe, they are effective, they are of the highest quality that we can offer.

• 1:06:30Nick Bare?

  We recently

• 1:06:34Nick Bare?

  enrolled in a new program with this organization called Light Labs. So if you go onto any of our product pages, under the buy box, which is like the first half of the page as you're scrolling down, you'll see under the how to use ingredients and nutritional facts dropdowns. There's a little rectangular box that says Light Labs. You can click on that and it's this interactive panel. They call it a product insight panel. And you can click on that and you can see when our products have been tested last by Light Labs. Light Labs is a testing lab and software platform designed to give brands and customers clear, reliable and actionable insights into

• 1:07:19Nick Bare?

  the product's purity and nutritional integrity. So if you click on this little rectangular Light Labs box on each one of our product pages, it'll open up and it highlights the active ingredients per product transparently, helping you as a customer easily trust and validate our product claims. So for example, if you go on the G M Sport Plus product page and you click on the Light Labs box, it'll open up this product insight panel, the P I P. And you'll see the recent test results for vitamins in those products or in that product, heavy metal testing, allergens, caffeine content and microbial testing.

• 1:08:05Nick Bare?

  So we're now sharing all these test results with you guys on our product pages within Light Labs. This is something we've recently brought on and integrated into our website, which is super cool and just shows some of the testing that we're already doing, but sharing it with you now to be more transparent.

• 1:08:26Nick Bare?

  Something in the last couple of years we've done, which has been extremely important for the brand, is we have brought quality in-house. So we have a quality department in-house and that's led by our, our director of quality, his name's Nick Dowling. He actually previously worked at one of our manufacturing facilities.

• 1:08:47Nick Bare?

  And with some of our manufacturers, we've been working with them for the last.

• 1:08:53Nick Bare?

  Eight plus years. We have great relationships with some of these manufacturers. We have a few different manufacturers across the US based off of different products and what products those manufacturers specialize in. But we brought on Nick Dowling a few years ago. He leads our quality program. He's the one who oversees our in-house testing and quality, our manufacturing,

• 1:09:21Nick Bare?

  testing and compliance program, our integration with NSF and Light Labs. So oversees all the testing and a cool initiative that he recently pursued and achieved is that we have a lab in-house, actually here at BPN HQ. And we got that lab certified, so it's ISO 17025 certified. So not many brands have a ISO 170255 certified lab within their HQ. So we can do testing ourselves to confirm certain lab results.

• 1:10:06Nick Bare?

  But the ISO 17025 certified lab means that a testing laboratory meets international standards for competence and consistent operation, providing they produce valid, reliable results and are accepted globally. This is the gold standard for labs wanting to show their technical capability and quality management. So we do this in-house now. We have this ability in-house. Nick Dowling has done a great job leading that initiative. But that is just some of the due diligence and some of the systems that we have incorporated

• 1:10:44Nick Bare?

  into our quality program to ensure that the products you are using and consuming are safe, effective and reliable through multiple testing programs and due diligence. Now I have a little story that I want to share.

• 1:11:05Nick Bare?

  As I previously mentioned, our second key initiative for 2026 is intentional product development. I mentioned the Strength Collection. I mentioned the intentional strategy behind the RTD on Amazon and retail. And then whey protein isolate.

• 1:11:29Nick Bare?

  Now we are launching our whey protein isolate, as I mentioned, March of 2026. What makes whey protein isolate different from our current whey protein that we offer? We currently offer whey protein concentrate.

• 1:11:47Nick Bare?

  Whey protein isolate has lactose removed, which means that if you struggle digesting whey protein concentrate or lactose, if you have a lactose intolerance,

• 1:12:03Nick Bare?

  most people who have a lactose intolerance can digest

• 1:12:09Nick Bare?

  whey protein isolate. So if whey protein concentrate makes you gassy, bloated, gives you like the protein farts, to be honest, you might be better suited for whey protein isolate.

• 1:12:28Nick Bare?

  We know a lot of people through some of our surveys on our website and research. There are people who don't buy our protein because we offer a concentrate. They can't digest lactose well, and they're looking for an isolate. So this is one of the reasons that we are launching isolate in March of 2026. Two flavors initially vanilla and chocolate. Now,

• 1:12:56Nick Bare?

  when we started the research, the research and development for this product

• 1:13:04Nick Bare?

  through our surveys

• 1:13:07Nick Bare?

  and from consumer feedback, we found that a lot of people wanted a grass-fed whey protein isolate. So we decided that if we're going to launch an isolate, we're going to launch a grass-fed option. And we learned a lot through this process.

• 1:13:29Nick Bare?

  Now, there's a lot of brands online who are selling a whey protein isolate that is branded on the bottle, on the label, as 100% grass-fed whey protein isolate. So we went to our manufacturer partners,

• 1:13:49Nick Bare?

  and they connected us with the best whey protein suppliers in the world. And we had the conversation, we asked them

• 1:14:01Nick Bare?

  all the questions around 100% grass-fed whey protein isolate. And from the best protein suppliers in the world,

• 1:14:14Nick Bare?

  they told us that a 100% grass-fed whey protein isolate does not exist.

• 1:14:23Nick Bare?

  So we started asking questions. Because there's a lot of brands, there's a lot of products on the market that sell and offer a 100% grass-fed whey protein isolate. So we asked more questions.

• 1:14:37Nick Bare?

  And through our due diligence and through our research, we found that there is a lot of false claims in the industry, in the market, around grass-fed whey protein. Specifically, grass-fed whey protein isolates.

• 1:14:57Nick Bare?

  So that the the solution that we came to and the best option

• 1:15:03Nick Bare?

  is a 95% grass-fed whey protein isolate. That is what we are launching in March of 2026.

• 1:15:12Nick Bare?

  And this protein supplier that we came across and have built a relationship with, they are under a certification called the Truly Grass-Fed Certification

• 1:15:26Nick Bare?

  that verifies and certify that 95% of

• 1:15:32Nick Bare?

  The protein being supplied is grass-fed. And this comes with a few different

• 1:15:42Nick Bare?

  standards. So

• 1:15:46Nick Bare?

  the protein they said that we will be offering is truly grass-fed certified. Whey protein isolate 95% grass-fed because 100% grass-fed apparently does not exist.

• 1:16:00Nick Bare?

  So there are some more questions to ask for the brands that are marketing a 100% grass-fed whey protein isolate.

• 1:16:08Nick Bare?

  To meet this certification program, the cow's diet must be predominantly minimum 95% from a forage consisting of grass, hay, haylage, baleage, silage, and crop residue. In addition, a small amount, maximum of 5% of concentrate feed, including mineral and vitamin supplements, may be fed to animals for the purpose of maintaining animal health.

• 1:16:40Nick Bare?

  Milk samples must be taken at the farm when the milk is transferred to a milk tanker and tested and verified to be antibiotic-free at the plant before being used. And cows must not be given R-BST or any other growth hormone, artificial or otherwise, at any time in their lifetime. And the milk supplier must abide by the Glambia Open Source Dairy Code of Practice to ensure high standards of milk production, farm management, and animal welfare are maintained at all times.

• 1:17:20Nick Bare?

  I share this to say, the way you do one thing is the way that you do everything.

• 1:17:27Nick Bare?

  And there is a responsibility to set a standard and hold a standard.

• 1:17:34Nick Bare?

  We could have done what a lot of other brands do in the market.

• 1:17:40Nick Bare?

  And that is to stamp on the front of our label

• 1:17:45Nick Bare?

  100% grass-fed whey protein isolate. But it's not the right thing to do. Because it's not the truth. And it's deceptive marketing.

• 1:17:58Nick Bare?

  The best that we could source, the best that we could find in the world is a 95% grass-fed whey protein isolate that is certified under the Truly Grass Fed Program. That is what we will be launching in March of 2026.

• 1:18:18Nick Bare?

  Those are the standards that we have set for ourselves. That is how we conduct our business. That is how we practice trust and credibility and transparency.

• 1:18:32Nick Bare?

  And we will be ruling out this product and these products going this next year.

• 1:18:41Nick Bare?

  This is just some of the stuff that I wanted to share

• 1:18:46Nick Bare?

  as we're wrapping up 2025 and we're preparing to go into 2026 that we work on

• 1:18:53Nick Bare?

  regularly as a brand, as a business. That is typically behind the scenes, but that we want to start sharing and showcasing. Because this is where so much of my passion is. It lies, it exists. I love building brand. I love building products. And especially good products that are tested, that can be trusted,

• 1:19:19Nick Bare?

  that are quality.

• 1:19:21Nick Bare?

  So I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for supporting BPN and myself over these last 13-plus years.

• 1:19:33Nick Bare?

  But I'm really excited for this next year. I'm really excited for the future. So as always, go one more.