284 Gunnar Lovelace on Creating a Thriving Company Culture

"Learn as ferociously as possible." - Gunnar Lovelace If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/284 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 284 with Gunnar Lovelace.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to this episode, a very special one because we have a special human being on. A dear friend of mine that I've connected with recently, who is up to a big game in life and is looking to transform the world and the health that we experience in the world. His name is Gunnar Lovelace, and he is a serial entrepreneur in nonprofits, technology, fashion, and real estate. But most recently, he is the founder and co-CEO of Thrive Market, which is the largest e-commerce company in LA and is revolutionizing the health food industry. He has started two nonprofits in education and environmental training as well.

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  And in this episode, we really break down a lot of incredible things, including how to attract, nurture, and empower talent at your company, and specifically a company that is growing extremely rapidly in an early stage. Also, how to handle your internal emotions during massive growth and responsibility. How to come up with the values that are the core of your company. How Thrive Market grew from 10 employees to 400 employees in the first year. How buying quality food from conscious businesses helps heal the healthcare crisis in the US, and much, much more. This is an incredible human being. I think you'll get a lot out of this, whether you're an entrepreneur or someone looking to achieve their dreams.

• 2:00Lewis Howes?

  Gunnar is an incredible example of this, so make sure to dive in. Get your pen and paper out, take some notes, and prepare to be inspired. That's what this is all about. It's allowing yourself to learn, to grow, and be inspired. Because you can take action in your life to grow as a human being, to grow in your...

• 2:22Lewis Howes?

  Health, your finances, your relationships, your spirituality and everything. So without further ado, let me introduce you to the one, the only Gennar Lovelace.

• 2:38Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got my man Gennar Lovelace on. Good to see you, man.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  Hey buddy. So great to finally be here with you.

• 2:45Lewis Howes?

  Thanks for being here. Now you are the founder and co-CEO of a company called Thrive Market. You're an entrepreneur who's built companies, sold companies. And tell me what you were doing before Thrive, what your entrepreneur journey was like.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I mean, I've been around a lot of different enterprises. I started and sold a couple of software companies. Then I started a jewelry company with my mom and just kind of been very fascinated in social enterprise my whole life. You know, the intersection of business, media and technology and the way that that can have impact on the world is very exciting to me. You know, I was a full-time activist in college and you know, it was like the same thousand people that would show up at the rallies. And I was like, this is, there's gotta be a bigger way to have an impact. And so that was right when the dot com boom was starting to happen in 2000.

• 3:39Speaker 02

  So I dropped out of college and started my first educational software company, teaching children how to read. And that was really the beginning of my journey for me and.

• 3:48Lewis Howes?

  Why did you want to teach kids how to read?

• 3:51Speaker 02

  Well, I just fell into it. It was, you know, it was, it was, I was really, we were the first, at that time, the first flash database company in LA. And I've always loved education in general and we had a great client that just kept coming back on a piece of software that they wanted us to build for them. And we ended up just building out the entire software application over the course of a year. And it led to the acquisition of the company.

• 4:18Lewis Howes?

  What did the software do specifically?

• 4:20Speaker 02

  It taught children how to read through interactive cartoons. So it was really.

• 4:24Lewis Howes?

  I could have used this. I couldn't read until like college.

• 4:26Speaker 02

  I still have a list. So it was, it was really, you know, in the whole office, we're all doing phonemes, which is the way we actually learn to read and learn how to speak is we actually look at the way that people's lips move. And so, you know, we were spending a lot of time in the animation sequences, really making sure the lips of the characters were actually accurate to. How people speak.

• 4:48Lewis Howes?

  You're creating cartoons with this on the computer? Was this like a handheld device?

• 4:52Speaker 02

  It was pre-handheld, so it was all all computer 2000.

• 4:55Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 4:56Speaker 02

  And that was.

• 4:57Lewis Howes?

  You would just watch like a cartoon show?

• 4:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, it was like an interactive, interactive, choose your own cartoon adventure that would teach children how to read. And it was, it was like a big left turn for me from being a college activist where I was like, you know, I was live, literally living in the woods in a treehouse on campus illegally, you know, as a full-time activist. And, uh, and then just, you know, really felt like I was reaching the limit of my impact. And so I dropped out of school.

• 5:23Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 5:23Speaker 02

  And ended up in this, um, you know, in this scenario where I was building out this software that I really loved it. So it was just, it's just one thing led to another.

• 5:31Lewis Howes?

  Which school is this?

• 5:32Speaker 02

  UC Santa Cruz.

• 5:33Lewis Howes?

  Okay, cool.

• 5:34Speaker 02

  So it's a banana slugs and they, they have this beautiful campus with like.

• 5:38Lewis Howes?

  That's their mascot.

• 5:39Speaker 02

  That's their mascot, banana slugs. Have you ever seen a banana slug?

• 5:42Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 5:43Speaker 02

  They're, I mean, they're just like big, fat, like juicy, yellow, bright slug. And you see them everywhere in the woods and they're just huge redwood trees everywhere. And it's just gorgeous. And I was literally living in a treehouse. Uh, and I had a little hut and like we'd get, you know, there were like 15 of us that were on campus squatting in the woods. And I did that because I didn't want to pay for, um, rent at the time because I was a full ride scholarship and I was more interested in like doing art and the activist work that I was doing.

• 6:14Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 6:14Speaker 02

  Uh, but it was, you know, it was such a big turn for me to like drop out of school all of a sudden, start this company, move to LA.

• 6:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:22Speaker 02

  I'm like a country boy and.

• 6:23Lewis Howes?

  Twenty years old, twenty one?

• 6:24Speaker 02

  Twenty one.

• 6:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:25Speaker 02

  Um, and you know, it was a crash course, you know, I'd, I'd always been interested in making money. I grew up very, very poor. So it was, uh, you know, for me, it was always, uh, like there was a burning desire to be able to provide for myself and provide for my family.

• 6:41Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 6:42Speaker 02

  But at the same time, I recognized that money was a vehicle for, uh, doing good.

• 6:47Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 6:47Speaker 02

  And so I, it was a really radical shift for me and I had a, I took a lot of shit from, uh, friends of mine that were like, wow, you're such a sellout. You know, you went from being like.

• 6:55Lewis Howes?

  To go make money.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Hardcore activist and now you've entered like the corporate world. Um, and so that was, you know, a.

• 7:01Lewis Howes?

  Did you lose a lot of friends in that time?

• 7:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, not.

• 7:05Lewis Howes?

  I've lost so many friends from just like going after my dreams.

• 7:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:08Lewis Howes?

  Seems like you just lose friends when you do that.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's it's an interesting, you know, they the the real ones come back.

• 7:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 7:14Speaker 02

  Um, and, um, at the end of the day, you know, and then like your work, you know, what you do is helping so many people. If you were like, you know, really went off into the dark side, then like it would be obvious that you, you know, you you were a sellout. It's the same for me. It's not like it wasn't like, you know, I went off and, uh, you know, but I've had my fair share of misadventures.

• 7:35Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. Exactly. Now, it seems like it'd be a lot to learn how to create this like animation cartoon company at 21, essentially, and teach and then understand how to teach education at the same time. Did you have a lot of people working with you? How big was the company?

• 7:49Speaker 02

  It was about 20 of us.

• 7:50Lewis Howes?

  20 of you?

• 7:51Speaker 02

  Um, so it wasn't a big company.

• 7:52Lewis Howes?

  You started it yourself, you were the founder?

• 7:54Speaker 02

  Started it, um, and then we ended up selling the company about a year into the into the project.

• 7:59Lewis Howes?

  Pretty quick.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  Which was great. I mean, it wasn't wasn't a huge hit, um, but it was a great, you know, it was like 21 and I

• 8:05Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  had a nice, nice win. Um, and, yeah, I mean, for me personally, I think one of the things that has always been my orientation to life is just like learn as ferociously as possible. And, um, and it's one of the things that I tell a lot of my other entrepreneurial friends, particularly women that I think are actually more qualified than men often, but think that they need to know more and prepare more. And I I think that we often overthink what we need to do next. And instead, the most valuable thing that we can do is just put ourself into the situation, get into the driver's seat, make the mistakes and see how, see the real world dynamic instead of try to overthink it.

• 8:46Speaker 02

  And that, to me personally, has been such a powerful learning lesson over and over and over again, like, like, I've never built a company like Thrive Market before. You know, we're 400 employees. I've never operated with 400 employees before. But, you know, you just have to like, you lean into it and you're honest with yourself and honest with your leadership team and and make a lot of mistakes and make sure that there's a culture that it's okay to make mistakes while still being very oriented towards excellence and performance. And just be willing to learn. And I think that's such, and I know you share that. I mean, that's what your work's all about.

• 9:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. It's interesting you say that because a lot of entrepreneurs that reach out or email me, and I'm sure you get the same thing. They're always asking a lot of questions. They have fears, they have doubts, concerns about putting themselves out there, creating a product or a company. And they always ask, how did you do it? And I'm always like, to be honest, I was just so ignorant about how to do it that I didn't have the fear of looking bad or looking silly. I was willing to put myself out there and try.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  Right.

• 9:42Lewis Howes?

  And take a lot of action over and over and make mistakes.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  Right.

• 9:46Lewis Howes?

  And a lot of people just aren't willing to make those mistakes.

• 9:48Speaker 02

  Right.

• 9:48Lewis Howes?

  They don't want to look bad in their family or friends. It sounds like that's what you did. You were just willing to put yourself out there and learn as you've.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're like learning opportunities. It is a mistake, but it's also compost for what's going to come next. It's like a fertile terrain for which the next seed will come.

• 10:04Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 10:04Speaker 02

  And, you know, it's that, it's that willingness to just fall down over and over again and pick yourself back up. And, and, you know, there's going to be things that really work well. And all it takes is a few things to work well.

• 10:17Lewis Howes?

  That's it. You don't have to be perfect at everything.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  That's right. And you look at most people that have been really successful in their lives, they've all had similar experiences, you know? And I think, I think, you know, you sound like you had inherent confidence. I did not. I was really insecure. And I've always used fear as like a teacher for me. So like wherever I was afraid of something, I would be like, okay, I'm really terrified of this, so I'm actually going to go try to do it because I'm really scared of this. And I can tell, like, that just became an early teacher for me. And I, I think, as you, you know, to, to the point of the conversation, I think it's such a powerful thing, just to be willing to take the plunge, get into it. And, and, you know, I love the,

• 10:59Speaker 02

  the mantra, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. We are always overtraining. We're always overthinking it. We're always trying to make it perfect. You know, get out there as quickly as possible. Friends of mine that are starting businesses or thinking about ideas like, is this, is this right? Is it good enough? And you know, I need another six months to like, make this perfect. And I'm just like, stop it.

• 11:20Lewis Howes?

  Just kill it.

• 11:21Speaker 02

  Stop it. Like, get out there. There's nothing better than having real market feedback, real people touching it, real people giving you inner feedback about what they think about it. And, and that's actually the fastest way to iterate on it.

• 11:36Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. I mean, look at the iPhone. You'd think the first iPhone was perfect? No.

• 11:40Speaker 02

  It's horrendous.

• 11:41Lewis Howes?

  And it's still updating every year, right? It's still coming out with something new. But if they waited until now to launch it, they'd be what, $50 billion less?

• 11:49Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 11:50Lewis Howes?

  If they had something out now. Interesting. So what do you feel like was the biggest fear you've overcome in the last 10 years that you leaned into?

• 11:58Speaker 02

  You know, actually, speaking, public speaking was really, and I still deal with it. Like, I think, you know, growing up, really poor, overweight, a lot of like, trauma in my family, and just whatever the dynamic was, there was something. And I, I had a really intense year where I went from like, a really safe, kind of small, private school that we had at, at this little hippie commune that I grew up in, to going to a public school in eighth grade. And I was just like, completely tortured. It was like, the worst year of my life.

• 12:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:30Speaker 02

  You know, overweight, you know, last name Lovelace, grew up on a hippie commune from a small town, totally like, Lord of the Flies. All day long, I was being, you know, thrashed by, by the kids there. And it just, it took me years to recover from that. And there was something that happened that year where a really deep insecurity around like, you know, being who I am, or, or speaking clearly, some insecurity set in there. And so I've had to do a lot of work on that. And I still do. Like, I'll go to meetings sometimes, and, you know, I'm the most successful person in the room, and everybody there wants to work with me, but I get really insecure. And I'll like,

• 13:10Speaker 02

  notice this like, like, really deep, like, latent nervous system thing that I'm still like, you know, it's just amazing how trauma repetitive, and we're all, we all have our versions of that. And so I think it's, it's, you know, it's just a great example to,

• 13:27Speaker 02

  Be gentle with ourselves, you know, to really like recognize that we're all working with a great deck of cards and that we all have our different challenges that are really our greatest strengths and our weaknesses as well. And so that's, that's a really clear, clear. And so I've, you know, I've had coaches and I've taken classes and I do like improv acting and like do things that force me to like get comfortable with it, but it's still, it's still like even starting this interview, I was like, oh, I'm, I'm, I notice some anxiety about this.

• 13:57Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. Yeah. Okay. What do you feel like you've overcome in the last 10 years? There was like a big fear that now you've like, I've conquered this.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think it's a constant process. So, um, you know, I think one of the big ones for me is, is just financial wealth, you know, because I grew up so poor, um, you know, there was just a lot of insecurity around that and a lot of survival concerns. And so, you know, there's, you know, it's, it's a constant journey and I'm always, I'm, I'm in a place at this point for me where money is energy. It's not about like making more money so I can buy a nicer car or a nicer house. Like I've, I've done all that stuff at this point. It's more about, uh, I want to gather more money so that I can have greater impact on the world.

• 14:45Lewis Howes?

  Guys like me and you, we're not always looking for the new car that, you know, I don't buy really things.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:50Lewis Howes?

  You know, it's like, I live a very simple life.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:54Lewis Howes?

  But it's, it's not like I'm looking to make money myself to buy something new. It's like I had, I wear usually T-shirts like this all day long.

• 14:59Speaker 02

  Right.

• 15:00Lewis Howes?

  So it's all about the impact.

• 15:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:02Lewis Howes?

  And how we can accumulate that to create better, better impact. Um, so I like that about you. What do you feel like you do the best at right now?

• 15:11Speaker 02

  I think my, uh, my biggest service, uh, in thrive right now and as a leader is actually being a cheerleader. And I actually, for me, that's been a huge process because I used to be a horrendous micromanager. My first companies, I was just terrible. Yeah. I did not understand how to set people up for success. I didn't understand about how to have like disciplined, regular check-ins that create a framework, but also allow people to execute on their own. And I was just like riding people too hard and then also being critical in a way that wasn't constructive. Yeah. And so it took a lot of mistakes in that area.

• 15:52Speaker 02

  And I've really had to learn over the last 10 years how to attract leadership and really nurture them and empower them. And my job now as a CEO, which I feel like, you know, is really more about like chief energy officer, like I'm really there conducting energy, the energy of the organization. My job is to find the absolute best people, get out of their way and make sure that they have the resources they need. And yeah, I'm like providing light strategic guidance. Yeah. But by and large, my job is just to make sure that they succeed at their jobs. Right. So how do you attract, nurture and empower? So I think for me, the thing that's been most exciting about what we're doing with

• 16:37Speaker 02

  Thrive Market, where we're making healthy food affordable to everybody, is that it naturally attracts really passionate people that are interested in that topic. And so I think when one's business, when the thing that we're involved in is inherently of benefit to others. Yeah. It attracts a different type of person, right? It's not going to be somebody who's just in it for themselves, or just in it for money, or just in it for power. Bigger purpose. It's a bigger purpose, right? And so, you know, like your work, like your team, like what we do, like so many of these new companies that are now emerging where there is a larger purpose to the actual enterprise and of itself, that in itself attracts a really high quality person.

• 17:21Speaker 02

  And so that is a really powerful virtuous cycle. And so for me, that's, you know, a big, big tailwind that we've had in building. Company.

• 17:30Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:30Speaker 02

  And so I, you know, I took that approach when, you know, I brought three other co-founders on. And that was really unusual for me as well, because it was like, right at the beginning, I gave up a big piece of the company.

• 17:42Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  And I had to share power in a way that I had never done before.

• 17:46Lewis Howes?

  So why bring on three other people?

• 17:48Speaker 02

  Well, I recognized that the company and what we're doing, you know, shipping thousands of health food products around the country.

• 17:54Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:54Speaker 02

  At low margin is a really hard thing to do.

• 17:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:57Speaker 02

  And I knew we were going to grow really quickly because of all the partnerships and the value proposition, how much demand there is to be able to access healthy food for less. And so it was obvious to me that if we wanted to succeed at what we're doing, there had to be much more senior people at the table from day one. And so that was a, it's still a process. Like, I now have a co-CEO, you know, and he's the first co-founder that came on, you know, when it was still an idea and helped me idea, you know, helped me ideate on it and really we raised the first money together and he's just a phenomenal partner. But, you know, even yesterday, we like, you know, like we had to really process some great stuff together about our power dynamic and our communication styles.

• 18:37Speaker 02

  And it's a process. It's like any relationship, you know, whether it's romantic or marriage or a business partnership. It takes time. From my perspective, it takes time and a willingness to like really communicate. And the beauty is when you find those relationships where that exists and that you, you can really build trust that, yeah, things are going to arise, but that we share power well and that we can communicate about anything and that we're inherently approaching the conversation at all times from a place of how do we succeed together versus, you know, how do I make sure I'm right?

• 19:09Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. So how do you guys, you know, how's the day-to-day dynamics work? Who's leading the conversation? Who's saying what happens? Who's making the decisions?

• 19:17Speaker 02

  So we really, we divide and conquer, you know, because of the scope of what we do, you know, because, you know, we have such a complex business so quickly, you know, when we pre-launch, we were 10 employees and a year later, we're 400 employees now.

• 19:30Lewis Howes?

  A year later.

• 19:30Speaker 02

  A year later.

• 19:31Lewis Howes?

  So tell, so break people, break it down for people. I'll have this in the intro as well, but break it down for people exactly what Thrive is and why you got into this in the first place.

• 19:38Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 19:39Lewis Howes?

  What sparked it?

• 19:39Speaker 02

  Uh, so what we do at Thrive, Thrive Market is that we sell the most popular organic, non-GMO food and non-toxic products that you would get at a normal health food store at 25 to 50% off, shipped to your home for free. And instead of making money on the products themselves, we charge a membership of $60 a year, like a big box shopping club. At Costco. Yeah, like that. And for every paid membership, we give a membership away to a family in need. Wow. And, and so for me, that's, you know, our whole mission as a business is to make healthy living accessible to everybody. And that's a very deep, personal passion of mine.

• 20:19Speaker 02

  You know, I grew up very poor, grew up with a single mom. We're, we're Latino immigrants. You know, I spent eight years illegally here in this country. So I, I, we, we really struggled and, and suffered. And I saw how hard, how hard she worked to make healthy choices. And when my mother remarried, uh, my stepfather was running an organic food co-op out of a little hippie commune that we moved to in Ojai, California. And I got to see firsthand the power of group buying as a way to make food more affordable. Interesting. And organic foods. Yeah. And so it was for me, I always felt like, as I moved through my entrepreneurial career, I've always been, I've actually been a bore. I'm a, I'm kind of a hypochondriac. So I'm always like obsessed with death. And I'm like, so I like, I'm always been very

• 21:01Speaker 02

  fascinated with like my physiology and what's going on and what's happening in the health movement in general. And so, uh, I've been going to like natural product expo west for the last 15 years. And a lot of the brands of the companies we sell, the most popular brands are friends of ours. Right. And so I've always been like, God, there's gotta be a way to like Get this out there. disintermediate the supply chain, work directly with the brand, ship directly to people, make it more affordable, pass those savings along. And that's really, you know, that's what we've been doing as a business. Wow. And it's probably, I mean,

• 21:33Lewis Howes?

  The fact that you grew up unhealthy, it sounds like, or a fat kid that probably has something to play into it. You don't want other kids to experience that insecurity and pain that came from what you went through, I'm assuming.

• 21:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, and actually, the irony for me is, at that point in my life, I was actually already on an organic farm.

• 21:49Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 21:49Speaker 02

  But I was depressed, you know, so a lot, obviously, a lot of what happens with our, you know, lifestyle diseases, you know, there's emotional, emotional issues, and then we're, you know, most people are dealing with emotional issues, and the fact that we're eating processed food, I was dealing with emotional issues but eating healthy food. But still, I could see how much it was costing people, and I always felt like, as I moved on in my entrepreneurial career, that there was gonna, there had to be a way to make this more affordable for people.

• 22:18Lewis Howes?

  So you had the idea, and then you found this co-founder and said, how do we launch this? Or what was the next step?

• 22:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, actually, that, it actually started very organically, which is that I started setting up wholesale accounts with the brands that I love the most, that I was just spending lots of money on, that I, you know, would get my green powders from, or whatever it was. And I would like set up, because I didn't want to pay, I didn't want to pay retail.

• 22:42Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 22:43Speaker 02

  And so then I would, I set up these whole bunch of wholesale accounts with my favorite brands, and, and then started offering it to some, like, my friends in, like, my town.

• 22:52Lewis Howes?

  Hey, you want to buy this for 20% off?

• 22:54Speaker 02

  They're like, hey, I want to get, you know, those greens at 40% off, or whatever it was. And so that was just very, very organic. And so then I started running little Facebook groups, where I'd be like, hey, this week, everybody can buy this product. And I wasn't making any money.

• 23:08Lewis Howes?

  You created your own co-op.

• 23:08Speaker 02

  I was just testing it.

• 23:09Lewis Howes?

  It was like an online co-op.

• 23:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, very, very, very informal.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 23:13Speaker 02

  And as I saw how much demand there was for that.

• 23:16Lewis Howes?

  People were buying.

• 23:17Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. I mean, they were oversubscribed. Every, every week, it was just oversubscribed. And so it was, it was obvious to me that there was a lot of demand to be able to access healthy food for less. And, and I wanted to find a way to do it that didn't take so much manually, you know, manual communication, like, oh, you know, Joe in Atlanta wants a bottle of, and I gotta deal with it, and like, his paperwork and process credit. It was just crazy, right? So.

• 23:41Lewis Howes?

  And you weren't making any money.

• 23:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, I wasn't, my goal wasn't, at this point, I realized there was something happening here. And so now I was just like, I was, you know, doing an MVP, it was total prototype testing. And I was just kind of, I was trying to gauge what products people were interested in, and how much demand there was, and.

• 23:56Lewis Howes?

  And then you started asking people, hey, how much would you guys pay a month for me to do this service?

• 24:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  They're like, oh, I pay.

• 24:01Speaker 02

  Well, it just, it also, it also just seemed like, you know, because Costco is so successful.

• 24:06Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 24:06Speaker 02

  But millennials don't want to go to Costco anymore. You know, we don't sell bulk, we sell everyday sizes. So it makes it really easy, like, you know, you don't want 72 rolls of toilet paper in your house. You know, like, anywhere to store it.

• 24:17Lewis Howes?

  Unless you've got six kids or whatever.

• 24:18Speaker 02

  You're in a big suburban house somewhere, you know, like, so it was really, um, it was obvious to me that, you know, we, what we needed to do is really figure out a way to make everyday healthy food more affordable to people.

• 24:30Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. So how does this compare to like a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's or your local, you know, Whole Market store?

• 24:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, on average, we're 25 to 50% off the normal retail price.

• 24:40Lewis Howes?

  Wow. But you get in the grocery store, any one of those stores.

• 24:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, I mean, Trader Joe's is more affordable in general because they private label everything.

• 24:47Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 24:48Speaker 02

  Um, but relative to everything else, we're still.

• 24:50Lewis Howes?

  The brands you like.

• 24:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. Like, if you were going to, uh, like, a, a, a normal health food store and buying your products that you want, you would save probably 30 to 35% with us.

• 25:02Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. So you're essentially getting name brand quality, um, products for the same price you would get private label stuff at Trader Joe's.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, and, uh, it's sometimes less.

• 25:15Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 25:15Speaker 02

  And it's delivered to your home for free.

• 25:16Lewis Howes?

  Right. And how long does the shipping take?

• 25:18Speaker 02

  It takes a couple of days. We have two, we have two warehouses now on the West Coast and the East Coast. So we, we ship, we ship directly to our members now within a couple of days.

• 25:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I made my first order, uh, last week and had a nice box come in with everything in there.

• 25:29Speaker 02

  Awesome.

• 25:30Lewis Howes?

  All packaged up. It was amazing.

• 25:31Speaker 02

  Awesome. Good.

• 25:32Lewis Howes?

  Good stuff.

• 25:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, we try to make it experience, you know, so when you, I mean, that's the thing is also like, how do you make the box kind of?

• 25:38Lewis Howes?

  It was really cool. It was like a little welcome message. It was like the whole.

• 25:41Speaker 02

  All, all post-consumer recycled materials and kraft paper, but it's beautiful and has an aesthetic to it. I mean, I think this is a made.

• 25:48Lewis Howes?

  Even the way it was wrapped was very like, uh, Intentional.

• 25:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:53Lewis Howes?

  It wasn't just like, you know, put in the box and this got to get it was like very like detailed, like tucked in in the corners.

• 26:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, we've, we've spent a lot of attention on that.

• 26:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that takes a lot of time and energy.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  Millions of dollars and a lot of energy.

• 26:07Lewis Howes?

  A lot of people.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  A lot, a lot of experts, like how do we make sure our packages consistently arrive in a beautiful state?

• 26:14Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 26:15Speaker 02

  That's hard.

• 26:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:16Speaker 02

  Really hard to do. I can imagine. We've really, we've really struggled with that one and we're finally getting it down.

• 26:21Lewis Howes?

  So how many people are in the warehouse, the two warehouses working and then how many are in the headquarters?

• 26:25Speaker 02

  So there's, there's about 250 in the two warehouses and then 150 at corporate.

• 26:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And how did you, you know, you started what a year and a half, two years ago?

• 26:34Speaker 02

  We started 14 months ago.

• 26:36Lewis Howes?

  14 months. And I remember getting the deck. I don't know if you'd sent me the deck or someone, cause you're reaching out to like every influencer, health influencer to invest. And I remember getting this and I was like, ah, it seems like a pretty, the deck was like the most incredible deck ever, like that I'd ever seen, cause I get offers here and there.

• 26:51Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 26:52Lewis Howes?

  And I was like, wow, this thing looks really nice, but I just don't know if they'll be able to pull it off.

• 26:58Lewis Howes?

  I'm like, dang it, I should have invested now. But you had so many, so much movement, you know, I just saw it everywhere, you know, everyone was promoting it and the results have been incredible for people. So how many, are you allowed to talk about numbers of how many people? How many customers do you have? What's the retention and what's it like?

• 27:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, we, so we're, we're actually the fastest growing e-commerce company in the history of Los Angeles.

• 27:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 27:21Speaker 02

  And we've brought on 160,000 paying members in our first year of business.

• 27:27Lewis Howes?

  160,000 paying members. 50, 60 plus a month?

• 27:30Speaker 02

  60 a year.

• 27:31Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 27:31Speaker 02

  60 a year. And we hit, you know, like 85, 90 million dollar revenue run rate in our first 12 months.

• 27:38Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 27:38Speaker 02

  So it's, it was really intense process, say at least. There were a lot of months where we actually had to like turn off all the marketing.

• 27:45Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 27:45Speaker 02

  Oh yeah.

• 27:46Lewis Howes?

  She's gonna handle it.

• 27:46Speaker 02

  Even this month, we had to turn off a bunch of marketing because it was just like coming in too hot. Because you know, the thing is operations, logistics, member services, those are linear processes. It's not like a software, it's not like a software app where like it just booms and it scales. Like infinitely overnight, like you have to actually have real people shipping real packages and real member services.

• 28:09Lewis Howes?

  Train them, you have to.

• 28:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, like we want to really high quality. So we don't want to grow too quickly. Like, you know, we've grown really, really fast, but we've actually purposely periodically throughout the last 14 months, we've purposely like throttled the growth so that we didn't grow too fast. And even then, we still have had periods of time where we would get backlogged or things would go too out of stock or people would try to, you know, call our member services and there'd be 5,000 tickets in front of them.

• 28:35Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 28:36Speaker 02

  And, you know, like that kind of stuff happens like every month. We have stuff like that going on.

• 28:40Lewis Howes?

  Right. Okay. So what's, what do you see next for the company? Are you going to have, you know, fresh meats and produce? Or what other, what other things are you going to have in the future? What do you see happening?

• 28:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, there's a bunch of different things that we're doing. I mean, one is we're, our mission is just to continue to get better at what we're doing right now. Like we're, like we've, we've set a really high bar. Now we need to consistently execute on that. And if we just stay focused on what we're doing right now, we will build a multi-billion dollar business. I mean, you know, that this.

• 29:11Lewis Howes?

  Execute what you're good at.

• 29:13Speaker 02

  Just doing what we're doing right now.

• 29:14Lewis Howes?

  Don't try to jump into everything else.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  We are doing other things, but it's, and that's the beauty of having a really strong leadership team and two, two CEOs and a strong co-founders. Like we can do a lot and we have to make sure that we're so focused on what we're doing. Otherwise, we will, you know, lose the, the critical opportunity that we have that nobody's doing what we're doing. It's our game to lose at this scale right now. So it's, you know, it's, it's really about staying focused. Also, I think one of the big challenges for us, which we've been doing well at, but it's still an ongoing process is how do we make sure the culture of the company stays really intact as we grow so quickly? And what I mean by that is we've got a lot of really smart people that are passionate, working

• 30:01Speaker 02

  together for the first time. And how do we build trust among them? How do we really facilitate a culture that's really positive, still performance oriented, but allows people to feel safe to make mistakes, allows for really, really good interdepartmental process and communication. And that's just starting to happen, but we have a lot more work to do there.

• 30:20Lewis Howes?

  Sure. How are you handling your, your own internal emotions over the last 14 months with so much scale, you know, from 10 to 400 people and the success of the company? And the pressure or the weight that potentially could come from that, how are you handling it yourself?

• 30:35Speaker 02

  Depends on the month. You know, I'm blessed to have a great, you know, partner in my life and, you know, she's been really flexible and patient with me. Um, cause you know, it's hard. I leave at six thirty, seven in the morning and I don't come back till 10 at night.

• 30:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:51Speaker 02

  A lot of the time. But you know, we have date night and day day and like I, I make sure I get, you know, like four or five really good sweats a week. Like I go and get some really intense cardio and, you know, just, I just try to do like basic stuff, take a lot of probiotics and like ashwagandha and like different things that like makes, keep my immune system and my stress level in check. Fundamentally though, like it was actually more stressful like five months ago, four months ago. Um, now we're kind of at a place where it's, it's, there's so much momentum and there's so many good people and so many things are breaking our way. It's really just about pacing myself and, um, and really like making sure when I come

• 31:35Speaker 02

  into the workplace, I'm coming from a balanced place because everybody responds to leadership. It's like a tuning fork, you know? So if I'm like in a frantic space or I'm unsettled or anxious, it just ripples down instantly and it has a really like negative effect on the business.

• 31:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 31:50Speaker 02

  And so the, the most important thing for me at this point is just to, like I said, is I'm just constantly working to build process among the leadership in a departmental process, facilitate a positive culture and, and really just pace myself at this point.

• 32:04Lewis Howes?

  Got you. What do you think's your guys' biggest challenge moving forward besides staying focused? I think is most important.

• 32:10Speaker 02

  It is. Yeah. I think, I think that's, you know, definitely, there's so many shiny objects. So it's so easy to get tempted by, you know, what's the next thing? Uh, and I think, you know, as I said, I think the other big challenge for us as we grow the business is how do we really make sure? People that come in that we really build a culture of positivity and excellence. So like, we're just finishing an exercise of our values as a business. Gotcha. And what the onboarding sequence is for new employees. And, you know, like, simple things like, you know, I didn't realize before we started the business that how important it was that we really facilitated a culture of positivity. How do you facilitate that? And, and as leadership, we have to reflect it. And, you know, there's had, there's had to be hard adjustments among leadership where there was like complaining

• 32:55Speaker 02

  or gossiping, like, great people, super talented, but just like not coming from that place. And so if some of the leadership is coming from a place of insecurity at that level, it's going to percolate down into the company. And it was, there were some challenges that were happening there. Like, that was, there was negativity and complaining and gossip and, you know, like, you know, the subplots. And like, that, like, you know, for me, I came back after a trip last September and I was like, this, like, this just got, we cannot have that happening in the business. And so really, really making sure that it's safe for people to say what they think. And then it's, you know, that people feel safe pushing back.

• 33:37Speaker 02

  Just because I ask for something or some other senior leadership asks for something, doesn't mean that somebody shouldn't push back and say, hey, this is- Speak up. Yeah, speak up. And like, doesn't, you know, there are, there is a hierarchy and there's power decisions that get made. But at the end of the day, we want to stay a really open culture. Yeah. And we want to facilitate that so that people feel like they're part of the process and there's authorship by everybody and alignment and enrollment. Yeah. And so I didn't realize how important it was when I started this journey with Thrive Market that, you know, really building a culture of positivity. And, and that's really, you know, that starts from us, like, as leaders. Like, if we're positive and we're not, if we're not gossiping behind people to other parts of the leadership

• 34:19Speaker 02

  and we're not, you know, acting in a judgmental way, but still, like, real performance, you know, you know, KPIs and metrics and excellence and deliverables, but positive and, and, and loving and authentic. It just, the virtuous cycles that emerge from that are so unquantifiable and so powerful. And at the same time- Uh, it's hard to do.

• 34:43Lewis Howes?

  Very hard to do.

• 34:43Speaker 02

  It's hard to do.

• 34:44Lewis Howes?

  And you can't expect your, you know, your team to do something you're not doing.

• 34:48Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 34:48Lewis Howes?

  And you can't expect them to be loving when you're gossiping and angry at each other.

• 34:51Speaker 02

  That's right. That's right.

• 34:52Lewis Howes?

  Fighting constantly.

• 34:53Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 34:53Lewis Howes?

  So, yeah, that's great. Uh, it takes a lot of practice.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  It does.

• 34:57Lewis Howes?

  And patience and awareness of what you're creating every single moment.

• 35:00Speaker 02

  And, and, you know, like, there are moments where I'm like, like, just jacked up on caffeine and I'm like too sharp. And then I, I have to go apologize.

• 35:09Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 35:09Speaker 02

  And that's like, that's like, I'm not above, like, you know, like saying, hey, like, I made a mistake.

• 35:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  Like, you know, hey, I apologize or something that you would like me to understand about the situation that I didn't pick up.

• 35:20Lewis Howes?

  Now, I'm curious, how did you create a value? You say you just created your value system now, right?

• 35:25Speaker 02

  I mean, we just codified it. We've had values along the way, but we're like, really, really.

• 35:29Lewis Howes?

  It's like mounted.

• 35:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:30Lewis Howes?

  It's like the 10 commandments of your company are up there now.

• 35:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:35Lewis Howes?

  So how do you create that as you're growing and evolving, you know? You know, I think a lot of entrepreneurs probably have this question. It's like, okay, I, I come out with an idea and I just start making money and then I start hiring people.

• 35:44Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 35:44Lewis Howes?

  And then I forget about, you know, creating a value system for this company or this product, or it may be. So how does someone go about that, even if they have three people on their team, 400 people? What do you think is the great, a great process to doing that?

• 35:57Speaker 02

  Well, we, what we did, and I don't claim to be an expert in this, um, and we're, you know, we're, we have a lot of advisors and help around this. Uh, and it's an ongoing process. What we did is we've gone out and looked at companies that we thought have do it well. And we looked at their values and we've talked to them and some of them are investors in our business. And we've gone and visited their workplaces and looked at their onboarding sequences and really looked at the way that they have invested in that and successfully nurtured that. And, you know, Tom's Shoes is a great example and Patagonia is a great example. Those to me are like two of the, like, best examples out there of really successful social enterprise businesses operating at big scale. But they really take care of their employees and they really invest in the culture of what they're doing.

• 36:41Speaker 02

  And so we, we basically just, you know, and I would recommend this for other entrepreneurs, find businesses that you think are doing it well and, and go.

• 36:48Lewis Howes?

  Mimic, yeah.

• 36:48Speaker 02

  And, and, and mimic, right?

• 36:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 36:49Speaker 02

  No, no need to reinvent the wheel. And so, you know, like we borrowed from a bunch of like, we gathered like five different value statements and mission statements. And then we just like made it our own, you know, and it made what's real about our business. And for us, you know, our business is that, you know, we're focused with passion and purpose and positivity on making healthy living accessible to everybody. And we're focused, you know, with real obsession on our members. Like if we don't make sure that we do the basic things of taking care of our of our members that are paying for membership, we don't, nothing else can happen.

• 37:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:25Speaker 02

  And then everything else stems from that, you know, personal responsibility and authenticity and being able to have a culture that, you know, is really takes care of its employees. And so, you know, that was kind of how we thought about the hierarchy of our value sets.

• 37:38Lewis Howes?

  And did you create it as a leadership team? Did you have input from the entire company?

• 37:42Speaker 02

  Both.

• 37:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we did did some exercise company wide where we like asked the entire company to write the things that were most important to them. And then we distilled that through a series of leadership conversations and now.

• 37:56Lewis Howes?

  It's all the common themes.

• 37:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's all the, it's, you know, it's, you know, distilling those into 10 key themes. And it actually reflects the entire commentary of everybody, but it's all been distilled down into 10 key points. And and then, you know, that's a living document for us. So it's not like.

• 38:13Lewis Howes?

  You can edit it.

• 38:13Speaker 02

  It's done and it will never be changed. I mean, I think that's one of the challenges of like the US Constitution or things like that is like, we get so wed to things being like the way they are and we don't recognize that, you know, we all learn and dynamics change. And so for us, it's a living document. We'll, we'll, we will reflect on it every year and make any adjustments as part of an interactive process.

• 38:37Lewis Howes?

  I like that. Very cool. Is there a process or a document that you sent out that you'd be willing to share with people? A questionnaire or that we could add to this?

• 38:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I could definitely, I could definitely get something on that.

• 38:49Lewis Howes?

  Send me a few questions.

• 38:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:50Lewis Howes?

  That people could use.

• 38:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I mean, there was, yeah, I mean, it was really a, we did it like, so we do once a month. We do what's called our town hall and we bring food and like some beers and wine and it's, you know, kind of festive.

• 39:04Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 39:05Speaker 02

  And the leadership gives an update on what's happening with the company in the last 30 days. And we take question and answer and we'll do some exercises sometimes in those. So one of the, one of the town halls we did is, you know, we, we had everybody come and just spend half an hour writing about what it was that was important to them, why they're there, what they want to see happen, what they're having challenges with. And then we really worked on synthesizing that. It took a lot of time. I mean, I think that's one of the challenges, right? Like, we're so busy as entrepreneurs. We don't think that this is an important thing.

• 39:42Lewis Howes?

  We're focused on getting results in our business, not creating the culture as much. And making sure that everyone's happy and connected and those things.

• 39:50Speaker 02

  And, and it's, it's really hard when we're like overwhelmed and we're trying to like either survive or deal with the crush of growth.

• 39:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 39:58Speaker 02

  To like prioritize something that's more abstract.

• 40:01Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:01Speaker 02

  And it doesn't seem as tangible.

• 40:04Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 40:04Speaker 02

  And I really had to get my head around that. It's been a process for me too, but it's the, the dividends of facilitating a really positive culture where it's clearly reflects the values of the, of the entire company.

• 40:18Lewis Howes?

  It's important.

• 40:18Speaker 02

  It's really important and it sets up a lot of virtuous cycles. So, you know, half of our new employees come from existing employees.

• 40:25Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:25Speaker 02

  Right? And that's because people feel like it's an exciting, rewarding, beautiful place to work.

• 40:32Lewis Howes?

  Fun community.

• 40:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 40:34Speaker 02

  And so we, we run a food program, for example. So every, all the food is paid for, for the, for the employees.

• 40:39Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 40:40Speaker 02

  And we have a big kitchen, a big, long 30 foot wooden table and a cafe.

• 40:44Lewis Howes?

  All the food, lunch.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  Organic food, all taken care of. It's simple. It's like a salad bar and sandwiches and great snacks and bars and, and all that. And soups and just like simple stuff, but still like it brings everybody together. And it's our version of the water cooler, you know, like people from all departments that don't normally work together. Get to spend a few moments together and break bread metaphorically.

• 41:09Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 41:10Speaker 02

  And it creates a lot of like interwoven fiber among the organization. And so I think the key thing there, what I tell other entrepreneurs is, you know, pick the areas that you're going to invest in as a business. And you know, for us, like a food program, yeah, it costs a lot of money.

• 41:26Lewis Howes?

  Right. It actually costs them a month.

• 41:28Speaker 02

  It's like 50 grand a month.

• 41:30Lewis Howes?

  Right. It's a lot of money.

• 41:31Speaker 02

  You know, 40, 50 grand a month. That said, you know, when we do the analysis, like even from a pure bottom line perspective. If employees don't feel like they can get food there and they're going out for long lunches and they're not, they don't build relationships with each other. Actually costs us a lot.

• 41:47Lewis Howes?

  They're not paying us productive.

• 41:48Speaker 02

  Costs us a lot more.

• 41:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right. Interesting. This is great. Couple of final questions for you. What are you most grateful for in your life recently?

• 41:57Speaker 02

  I am most grateful for the opportunity to really just be myself. And I, I think, you know, we talked about this at the top of the interview and you know, I've, I've had such a, you know, I've, I've really struggled. A lot of different times in my life and a lot of like trauma and suffering and insecurity. And I've also been very successful at the same time. You know, like interfacing with more conventional business, the more conventional business world and venture capital investors. You know, I've always felt like I kind of had to like hide who I am. And that I couldn't like just let my authentic self like fully be there and that, and that I was going to be seen through as like a fraud. Right?

• 42:39Speaker 02

  You know, like these, like these, the top VCs in the country were going to see through finally, and then I'm a fraud. You know, and like, this was like the real stuff because you know, and, and, and now, you know, I like, I'll go into meetings and I'm just like. This is who I am. I grew up in a hippie commune. Like I've seen some really alternative shit in my life. I've really suffered. You know, I've had my fair share of like insecurities and fears and sexual trauma and like, that's just part of my journey. And I just like. I'm practicing authentically letting that be part of my leadership style.

• 43:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:15Speaker 02

  And I'm so appreciative of the therapeutic part of it. And I can see how it brings people more closely together. You know, when I'm, when I'm as a leader authentically sharing my hopes and dreams and fears and vulnerabilities, it allows other people to know that they can do the same thing.

• 43:37Lewis Howes?

  I love that. Thanks for sharing that.

• 43:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:38Lewis Howes?

  It's great. What can we do to get signed up with Thrive? And I know in the beginning you came on as a sponsor recently, so thanks for that.

• 43:46Speaker 02

  Of course, it's an honor.

• 43:47Lewis Howes?

  But what can we do for people that want to get signed up with Thrive Market and get started? What, what, what can they do?

• 43:55Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, they, they go to, is it Thrive Market Lewis?

• 43:59Lewis Howes?

  ThriveMarket.com/Louis.

• 44:00Speaker 02

  Okay, ThriveMarket.com/Louis.

• 44:03Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 44:03Speaker 02

  And, you know, there's a free trial and a percentage off their first purchase.

• 44:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:09Speaker 02

  And I think the main thing is, you know, we're at this amazing moment as a species where, you know, the production and distribution of conventional food is poisoning our economy, it's poisoning our bodies, and it's poisoning the environment. And we all can see it in different ways. You know, we spend $300 billion a year now on diabetes-related illnesses in this country. We're bankrupting our country and future generations with lifestyle diseases. All can be changed with the way we, you know, make lifestyle choices and the food that we eat. And so to the extent that we can all work together, vote with our dollars to support conscious businesses, access healthy food for less, which is such a critical part of our everyday life, we're all participating in an incredible virtuous cycle that benefits ourselves,

• 44:54Speaker 02

  benefits the economy, and benefits the environment. And so we need help. It's, you know, even though we're doing really well, this movement has been built on people sharing it with other people.

• 45:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:03Speaker 02

  And so, you know, we, we need that support. And, you know, we're still like, yeah, we're doing 100 million a year in revenue. There's 400 employees. Like, we're, we're a small gnat in the industry. You know, and like, we're up against big, multi-billion dollar food companies that are not. Excited about what we're doing.

• 45:21Lewis Howes?

  Right. Every fast food company.

• 45:23Speaker 02

  I mean, and, and, and, and many like just, just the companies that are producing food going into, you know, retail channels. We're at, at the, already in our 14th month of business, we're the largest retailer in the country. Selling non-GMO, only non-GMO foods in the whole country, which shows you, you know, like how quickly it's come. And that's happened because of the support that we've gotten. And so, you know, I would, to your question is like, one, you know, go, go try it for yourself.

• 45:51Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  Um, you can cancel at any time. You'll, you'll see how much money you save instantly yourself. And then if you like it, please, you know, please share it with your friends and family.

• 46:01Lewis Howes?

  There you go. So go to thrive market.com slash Lewis. We'll have that linked up here at the end as well. Two questions for you. Where can we connect with you online? Do you, do you personally, are you online if we, people want to reach out?

• 46:12Speaker 02

  It's, uh, you know, facebook.com forward slash Gennaro Lovelace.

• 46:16Lewis Howes?

  Okay, we'll have that linked up as well.

• 46:17Speaker 02

  So that's, that's, you know, personal profile.

• 46:19Lewis Howes?

  Are you on the Instagram and Twitter as well?

• 46:21Speaker 02

  You know what? I, I am like, I, I really need to. I know you took the first Snapchat photo. I, I'm, I'm just getting ready to start investing now, but Facebook is definitely, and then, and then thrive market on Facebook too. We're very, we have a great Facebook page.

• 46:34Lewis Howes?

  Cool. We'll link that up as well. Um, the final two questions, if, uh, this is your last day and thrive was gone and everything you've ever created was gone. For some reason it just erased from time and everyone you love is at your, by your side. And they say, uh, you know, here's a piece of paper and a pen. You get to write down three truths, three things you know to be true about everything you've learned in your life so far. And this is what everyone's going to remember you by. They won't have anything else that you've ever put out there. What would you write down as those three truths?

• 47:08Speaker 02

  That's a good one. That's a good one. Uh. Yeah, yeah. That's your job, right?

• 47:13Lewis Howes?

  What's coming up for you in the moment?

• 47:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So, so for me, what's coming up is, um, To love courageously and to really live our lives from a place of love, to do what we love, to really reach out and stay connected to those that we love. And even if, even if we're afraid of it. And the other thing would be, you know, personally, I would want to know that I inspired people to live their fullest and to encourage people to courageously live their fullest life, to, you know, courageously meet their fears and to really express themselves fully and do, do what they love at that, at that level. That's two. Third one, wow.

• 47:57Speaker 02

  I mean, I think there's really like those, that's it for me. Like those, those are the really like, if I were to think about the most important things for me would be to really, you know, you know, really live from a place of love and to, you know, really realize our full potential and help others do the same thing. It's so gratifying when our life is about helping others. You know, you know, if we're just constantly working to serve ourselves, we can be very successful by conventional standards and have a lot of money, but there's an emptiness that's there. And to the extent that we can do that while having a life of service that's connected to something greater than serving our own self-interest all the time, we're going to be really, really happy.

• 48:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, I love that. And final question, what's your definition of greatness? Definition of greatness, for me, it is really about that is how do I realize my full potential and help others to do the same? I actually think that that in the most simplistic terms, that's the meaning of life. You know, if you look at all life, all life is trying to get as big and healthy as possible and to share that information with its kin. You know, a plant is looking to get as big as possible and animals looking to get, you know, how to be as healthy as possible and to have its kin do the same thing. I feel like, you know, greatness for me personally is how do I live from that place and how do I inspire as many people as possible? And I know that's what you do. Exactly. So, good on, thanks for commenting. So much love and respect.

• 49:27Speaker 02

  I love what you're doing. Thanks, bro. Thank you. Appreciate it.

• 49:33Lewis Howes?

  And there you go guys, I hope you enjoyed this one. Make sure to check out the full show notes at lewishouse.com/284. I think you're gonna get a lot out of this. Also, make sure to sign up for your first month for free, plus 20% off of Thrive Market. When you go to thrive market.com/lewis, I highly recommend checking it out. You're gonna get a huge discount on some of the best whole foods that you can get. So make sure to check out thrive market.com/lewis for the special offer that Gennar has offered all of our listeners on the School of Greatness podcast. Be sure to share this with a friend, any friend that you think might get value from this. Share this with them, send them an email, and also post this on Twitter and Facebook so your friends can connect as well.

• 50:18Lewis Howes?

  We've got incredible guests coming up, and I hope you continue to enjoy and be inspired and moved by the guests that I bring on and the topics we cover. Again, lewishouse.com/284. Share with your friends. I love you guys very much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.