S05E93 Achieving Success and Overcoming Challenges with FITAID Co-Founder President Aaron Hinde
What motivates someone to leave a thriving career and jump into the unknown world of entrepreneurship? After surviving multiple challenges, how do you grow LIFEAID into a company worth over $100 million? Aaron Hinde shares his transformative journey from chiropractor to co-founder of LifeAid, emphasizing resilience through personal loss and unwavering commitment to quality health beverages.
What makes LIFEAID different from the other companies in the cutthroat energy drink business? Aaron shares insights on product development, the connection to CrossFit, and the lessons learned from overcoming adversity. Would he ever sell LIFEAID? We discuss the beverage industry and how Aaron's core values impact his decision-making process.
In a no-holds-barred conversation, Aaron also discusses the challenges facing CrossFit, how can CrossFit as a business can turn itself around, and offers insights into the future of the fitness industry
This intensely personal and inspirational episode explores the challenges of entrepreneurship, the evolving wellness landscape, and the importance of community support in recovery.
• Overview of Aaron's background and transition to LifeAid
• Early challenges in establishing the brand
• Role of direct marketing in LifeAid's success
• Commitment to clean ingredients and transparency
• Personal reflections on grief and community support
• Analysis of the current state of CrossFit and future potential
• Vision for LifeAid's growth while maintaining core values
@fitaid @aaronhinde #fitaid #entrepreneurship
#BotoxAndBurpees @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness
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S05E93 Achieving Success and Overcoming Challenges with FITAID Co-Founder President Aaron Hinde
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00]
Sam Rhee: Welcome to another episode of Botox and Burpees. I have with me one of my most distinguished guests, I think ever to date. It's Erin Hind, Dr. Erin Hind, co founder of FitAid. Dr. Hind is the president and co founder of LifeAid Beverage Company, and their motto is where they reimagine what we drink. LifeAid is a leading manufacturer of premium, healthy, and convenient nutritional products designed to boost performance and speed recovery.
For People pursuing active and healthy lifestyles. I am a huge FitAid consumer myself. This is, as uh, Aaron said, an OG shirt from years and years ago that I got when I first started drinking FitAid. I still drink it. I probably go through about 20 cans every two weeks or so. It just, uh, it has, I have the auto delivery set up, so it just gets shipped right to my door.
I love the, and I want to talk about the different flavors. I'm a huge fan of the citrus medley recovery. One, but, [00:01:00] um, I would be interested in hearing what other, uh, other products that you have that you, uh, think are good. Um, and, uh, I would also like to talk a little bit about your personal life. The reason why I reached out to you to do this podcast was because of an email that you sent, uh, at the end of 2024 at New Year's Eve about your brother.
And it was such a touching, impactful. Email that I, I couldn't help, but have to reach out to you and ask to talk to you about it. Um, it was amazing. It was not something I've ever seen a company ever do, or, or someone who's ahead of a company ever do, and it, and it blew me away, but, but before we get to that, thank you again for coming and joining me on, on the podcast.
Aaron Hinde: Thank you for having me. Really appreciate you.
Sam Rhee: Um, so. A little background. You are a doctor of chiropractic. Uh, you got your doctor of chiropractic degree from Palmer College and you were a clinic director at your own, um, sports injury and pain center for over 10 years. That's, um, before you got full time into your business. [00:02:00] Uh, and then in 2011, you co founded LifeAid, which is the company.
Uh, and you have now a number of beverages, FitAid, FocusAid, LifeAid, TravelAid, GolferAid, PartyAid. And the thing that I love the most about this was Uh, and I relate to it as a student, too, was once your your company had a lot of ups and downs, but once it finally got going, you were able to pay 240, 000 in student loans in one fell swoop.
And I think that is the dream of everyone who's coming out of training to be able to do that. And that must have been a pretty special feeling. Yeah,
Aaron Hinde: can be. And with nine years, you know, post high school education, I had racked up quite a bit of student loans. And, you know, my first kind of payday, half of it went to taxes and half of it went to student loans. But, so I wasn't left with any money, but, uh, at least I was debt free.
So that felt really good. It was pretty funny because I, when I entered in, you know, I'd been making payments for 20 years. [00:03:00] When I finally entered in the full sum. And hit submit. You know, uh, the screen just was, like, calculating for a second, and then it just said, Thank you! And that's it! And I was like, I was kind of expecting, like, balloons to be released.
There's, like, some fireworks or something.
Sam Rhee: that's so funny. So, um, I think your, your start was really documented well in a podcast. My first million, uh, back in December, 2019 at season two, number 30, if you want to get, um, a little more of an in depth part of the start, but I, I get the sense that you are such a NorCal Santa Cruz product. Like that is in your DNA.
That's in your culture. That's in your life. That's in your ethos. That's how I see you as. Is that true? And then
Aaron Hinde: Oh, absolutely. I mean, we love Santa Cruz. I've spent my whole life here. Um, both kids, uh, born and raised here. Uh, you know, and you probably know, you know, CrossFit. I was born in Santa Cruz as well. I [00:04:00] was thinking back to, like, my earliest CrossFit memories back in, uh, this had to have been, let's see, 1995, 96, somewhere in there.
You know, I'm coming home from, from, uh, college. I was going to St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Coming home. For summer break and I happen to have multiple gym memberships because they're all pretty inexpensive to have and we had a world gym two worlds gyms here in Santa Cruz a golds gym in a 24 hour and I was members at all three because there were you know, different girls at all three and Jump around a little bit and train in different spots.
And I remember this guy coming in this trainer a little older than me and He'd always be, like, hogging multiple pieces of equipment, and he'd be running, like, three people at a time, four people. And then they'd be jumping on this equipment, and then over to another piece, and then, like, run out the door and run back in.
And I'd see him at, like, World Gym, and then, after a few weeks, they were, that guy was gone. And then I'd be over at [00:05:00] Gold's Gym, and I'd see him pop into Gold's Gym, and we'd be working out there, and then he got kicked out of there for kind of his training style and taking up too much equipment, and same thing at 24.
Well, fast forward, that individual was none other than Greg Glassman.
Sam Rhee: him before CrossFit was even named CrossFit, which is about as OG, I think, as you can get with, uh, with the sport. And you've, you've supported the sport, and you've been a sponsor for until today. And I want to talk to you about what your thoughts are about CrossFit and, and, and how that, how you guys helped each other.
It's actually funny because I feel like the companies that have. Sprung out of CrossFit, I think of you, I think of Sieta Chips, which I want, uh, wanted to mention as well, like, who just got
Aaron Hinde: billion dollar accident, yeah.
Sam Rhee: yeah, so, so it's crazy how the lifestyle ended up supporting products that I think the world has now adopted as, as being healthy, but, but you started, um, [00:06:00] as an alternative to high sugar sports drink.
And that's something I want to talk about, but you and your founder, Orion, Orion Mellohan, your first product was named, you wanted to name it Raverade. Is that true? Back in 2011, because of, of your, your party lifestyle.
Aaron Hinde: yeah. Well, Ryan and I were always spitballing ideas. You know, we met in a CrossFit gym. We met in CrossFit North Santa Cruz back in 2009, I think. You know, my office, um, when I was at Cairo was in Scotts Valley. Well, CrossFit headquarters was in Scotts Valley. So that's how I became acquainted with, you know, CrossFit officially is because I was treating a lot of, uh, the, um, Members at HQ, and then, and then when they'd have athletes come into town, and I was already working with high level athletes from the 49ers and, and the Giants, and so it was natural fit, you know, I was pretty athletic myself, and, and working on all those type of folks, and, and so, uh, we [00:07:00] started, I started, you know, they were like, hey, you gotta come check out CrossFit, CrossFit, and I was like, ah, you know, okay, I'll check it out, I'll check it out.
And I remember going in there and seeing a couple of the, the guys, maybe a little younger than me that were in pretty good shape that, that I had seen it at my office and said, all right, I'm going to pace myself with these guys. They look like they're kind of, you know, ahead of the pack type of thing.
And I'll never forget that. I don't remember what the workout was, but I remember it was like lots of pull ups and running involved. And I remember first round I'm with them. I'm like, all right, I'm pacing with the top guy, the top two guys in the class by round two, I'm in the bushes. And I'm breathing and I hate to throw up.
It's like my least favorite thing and I'm just barely holding it together as everybody's just passing me and looping me all kind of snickering a bit. And I'm like, okay, maybe I don't have all my fitness quite figured out here. And, uh, you know, that was, that was a fun little run. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, that's how we kind of got going in the space and, and, you know, Ryan and I.
Uh, we've been going to Burning Man for years. You know, we, we met in a [00:08:00] CrossFit gym. When we had free time, we used to golf. So, you know, all of our products really, uh, represent our, our lifestyle. You know, I mean, our, our very first, uh, product we ever launched was, was Golf Raid. And because, you know, we were golfing and there was nothing in the golf space.
So as soon as we had the concept for that, we go, well, we go to CrossFit. There's no drink for CrossFit. What about? Um, you know, we, we go to the burn every year. What about, you know, rave, rave, but that was a little bit too racy, which became a party aid over time. And so those were the first three products, golf, raid, party, aid, and, and today,
Sam Rhee: So I love the story and and, uh, I don't want to go through it now, but you went through so many ups and downs, like not knowing, you know, how, you know, who to look for in terms of bottling, you know, making your stuff, getting it into cans, doing all those things. It's an awesome story. Um, I hope people check that out, but um, suffice it to stay you.
Uh, went all in, you gave up your chiropractic [00:09:00] practice and you literally had such lean times, your hand to mouth for like a year or two before it finally started to turn for you. Like, that's scary part of it. Like, now you look back and you're like, how did I even have the balls to do that at that time?
What, what is it when someone is in that situation and they're like, you know what? Maybe I made a mistake here. Maybe this wasn't the right thing to do. What was it that kept you going on that?
Aaron Hinde: well, some would call it stupidity. Uh, I called it ignorance and passion myself, but no, it was, it got really, I mean, it's been leaned so many different times that it got really, really, really hairy for me. We had, uh, just purchased six acres off the grid in, in Santa Cruz, and, and so I move a little 400 square foot, uh, trailer up there, and, and we're living off the grid, so there's no power, you know, we're, we had to drill a well, septic tank.
I told my wife, look, we're just going to do this for like a year, I'm going to build [00:10:00] us a house, blah, blah, blah, right? And, uh, And kind at the same time, you know, I'm getting fit aides going and, and, and Orion and I both have our own, you know, kind of real jobs. And it became a point, it's like, look, we got to make a decision here.
And where I was with chiropractic at the time, you know, I felt like I had just kind of reached the top. I wasn't, um, I wasn't, challenged or stimulated anymore. You know, I had a great practice. It was all referral based about 30 new patients a month, all by referral from, you know, existing patients had a great working relationship with the medical community.
So it was like existing patients. Number one, number two was, was, was other docs. And that just kind of kept me going. And I had a great lucrative. practice. And then a few things happen. Um, um, one, I decided to go all in and in real estate because I'm looking around and I'm talking to some of my patients coming in. [00:11:00] This is back in talking 2007.
uh, 2007. In so 2007 I decided to take all my money and then leverage myself and then go in and real estate. I buy like four properties. Three or four. Three or four. It was my existing one, four. And, well, we all know what happened late 2007, if you're old enough. I mean, it was the absolute peak and the worst time you could possibly do that.
So come 2008 rolls around. I've got 50, 000 a month coming in in income, but I've got 75, 000 going out with all, you know, the real estate stuff. And so that doesn't last very long, so I end up course in my completely going under. Fortunately, my practice was still going strong, and so I still had income. But then, you know, I lost everything, so I had no assets, no credit.
So then I'm building it back up, I'm grinding with no credit. Everything's cash now, and the practice, again, is still going strong. And so 2009 it's okay, we've got uh, Orion and I, you know, meet and we're getting [00:12:00] things going and, and it's like, Hey, we got this company going, uh, by 2011, I got to, I got to sell. So it's like, okay, I'm going to go all in with bid aid.
This is where my passion's at now. I sell my practice and I have to kind of do it quickly. And you know, anytime you're selling a practice, as you know, it's very personality driven, like people are attracted to you and your approach and your style, your bedside manner, et cetera, I sell to the guy who I knew wasn't quite the right.
That you know, he just didn't have the charisma and everything and I, I, I sell it to him. I accept payments and in love with fast forward six months later, he just can't handle it. He goes out of business, stops making payments to me. Okay. So now I've got no credit. No money, no income, because I'm not getting paid from Fidaid yet, and he stops making payments on the practice.
I'm living in an RV. I've got two kids. I'm fully off grid, and I've got no income. And so this is like, you know, 2011 into 2012
into 2012,
and most of [00:13:00] 2012. I'm like, what am I doing here? I'm in my mid 30s. I'm supposed to be in the prime of my life. I still have this massive debt load from, from my education. You know, I've lost everything.
And here I am on this beverage company that's really not doing well, and, uh, and I put all my eggs in that basket, and, you know, we're making macaroni, cheese, and tuna every night for dinner, because that's 1. 50 for that meal over here. We can actually get some good protein and carbs with that meal. And that was our reality for a period of time, and I hit, you know, a pretty low, dark spot in my life.
And I was like, okay. You know, dust yourself off and got to keep moving forward. Like a pity party is not going to do me any good at that point in time. So, you know, fortunately we were able to turn things around.
Sam Rhee: You did it with direct marketing, which I love hearing you. You went direct to gyms. You, I love the fact that you reached out to, to gyms first, uh, golf, golf places, but then you went all in on CrossFit gyms [00:14:00] and you, you went from 700, 000 to 4 million in sales.
And that's just from CrossFit gyms. When you really focused in on fit aid and CrossFit gyms. And. That blew me away. Like, you know, the beverage industry, as you've mentioned, 95 percent of companies failed the first year, 90, 99 after five, you're one of the few that survived. And that was all based on just marketing to the consumers that you knew were going to want your product.
Aaron Hinde: Yeah. The direct response marketing we learned from a good friend and mentor of mine, Ben Altadon, who's one of the sharpest marketing minds in the space. And fortunately he took me under his wing and, uh, really went out on a limb for me and paid for some education when I didn't have the funds and, and, uh, I.
Dove in, uh, both feet all at once into everything I could learn about direct response marketing. And so in the early days [00:15:00] of CrossFit, some of the CrossFit gym owners out there might remember, you know, we would just send you a four pack of FitAid in the mail. You wouldn't, wouldn't request it anything. I just would send it to you.
And I put you in a follow up sequence where we would say, hey, this is a great product, you know, made by athletes for athletes. Uh, here's why it's, you know, so great. Bring it into your gym with an initial order, 10 cases, I'm going to give you a free refrigerator. Well, you remember back in the early days of CrossFit, there wasn't really any refrigerators in gyms.
If they had any product at all, maybe they bought a case of water from Costco and they were selling them for a buck apiece. It was really not any pro shops or anything. So this was like the very beginning of starting a pro shop in a CrossFit gym. Okay, they take us up on it. We get the fridge in there, and then maybe they got some of their own t shirts in their waters, and you know, you start to see a retail landscape developing in the space.
Sam Rhee: It's funny because a lot of beverage companies that are startups now are trying to duplicate what you've done. We do the, we get the same type of stuff now that [00:16:00] you did from other, uh, products that are trying to get in, in, into this space. But we only sell FitAid, like at our gym, we sell probably still 125 cans a month, like 400, like, uh, we, Like, no, we don't have anything else.
So, so your product is good. I like it. Uh, it works for our, our athletes and then you've increased your retail presence and you're an Amazon and vitamin shop and stop and shop and circle K now. And you ended up expanding and you bought a couple international distributors along the way. How were you able to figure out like, okay, now we need to like buy LifeAid Europe and, you know, LifeAid Canada and keep increasing our.
Reach with this and, and
Aaron Hinde: Well, I travel a lot, and so does Orion, and you know, quite a bit for work and for fun as well. And when you travel overseas, you see a lot of copycat products from the U. S. You know, and if you And [00:17:00] so we knew that that Could be the case if this thing really took off. And so establishing a presence, uh, internationally, as well as protecting our trademarks internationally was really important to us.
We had a CrossFit gym owner, Heiss, uh, who owned a box in Europe and said, Hey, I saw you guys at the CrossFit games. I'd love to bring it over. And we made a deal with them and he brought over one pallet, you know, fast forward a decade later, he's running all of Europe for us. And it's done an amazing job.
Our European and Australian. Australia and New Zealand businesses all in GEMS. So we don't have any retail presence over there. We stay strictly in GEMS and direct to consumer and have some really great established partners.
Sam Rhee: That's pretty awesome. I wanna talk a little bit about your product, because it's really funny. I only actually drink one, one of your products. It's the Fit Aid Recovery ci uh, citrus Medley. I, I find that one. The, the original basically for me.
Aaron Hinde: OG,
Sam Rhee: Yeah. And then, and, [00:18:00] and then the other two that actually are, um, and that's very popular at our gym.
Um, also the sugar free one, the only other one that we really sell because we've tried all the other ones, but the ones that the people really like are the fit aid recovery with the creatine. I mean, Rx rather both sugar and non sugar. Oh, is that right? So,
Aaron Hinde: that's my favorite.
Sam Rhee: so, um, which ones are the popular ones and how have all these new flavors?
You, and I want to go through all the different ones a little bit, just, just so that people know, like what the products are.
Aaron Hinde: And we've got a FitAid Zero Sugar Recovery Fruit Punch brand new flavor launching tomorrow. So
Sam Rhee: Oh, is that right? All right. Got to try. I'll try that one, too. I mean, you have
Aaron Hinde: you, I'll send you out a case after this.
Sam Rhee: I'll be up to my ears and fit at it. Can't wait. Thank you. Um, so this has now a lot of people say they have clean drinks, but I really feel like this is the one that I can keep drinking and I don't feel like, and I don't [00:19:00] feel crazy about it.
Um, how did you come up with the original supplement? I don't know. Formulation. And have you changed any of it or just added and made different products based on how you formulate it?
Aaron Hinde: Yeah, we have changed and how the initial formulations work is really, I'm looking at what is the intended use occasion. I mean, if you rewind 14 years ago now, we were actually the very first function forward beverage company. People can't even imagine that because you go in the grocery store now, everything is function forward.
Everything, but we were the very first at the time you had energy drinks, which is basically no one's drinking energy drinks for health benefits, right? You're just drinking them to get jacked up. So it's basically a caffeine platform, but very high in sugar or artificial sweeteners, um, synthetic caffeine, etc.
Then emergence of kombucha and coconut water. Uh, very polarizing at the time from a flavor profile perspective, but nobody had, you know, if you look at [00:20:00] the energy drink companies, the big three at the time, it was like 15, 20 variations off the same flavor profile. Well, we wanted to be function forward. So he said, okay, what are you looking for?
You know, CrossFit is the most taxing workout that there is, you know, people are just sitting in sweat angels afterwards, like what's going to help get your body back to life and, and recover as quickly as possible. And so I would just kind of look, go on Medline. for PubMed and look at, okay, well, what are people taking?
What are the different supplements? What are the efficacious doses of this and that? And also talking to all the athletes in the space, what are you currently taking from supplement perspective and why? You know, and this, we did that same approach with everything when we did it with Part A, if you look at Part A, 5 HTP and milk thistle and electrolytes and B vitamins, FocusAid.
looking at nitropics like alpha GPC and, uh, L theanine and etc. So, you know, we're basically reverse engineering based on the intended, you know, the use occasion. Creatine, I'm super excited about. You mentioned the creatine SKUs. I mean, [00:21:00] creatine, uh, is on fire right now. We've had our creatine SKUs out for a while.
We're using bonded creatine. So we take CreaPure, which is the best creatine on the market. Gl a nutritionalist bo uh, encapsulates it in a P protein, so it increases solubility and stability, and then we were able to put that into a can. But you look at like the, the, uh, uh, amount of women now that are taking creatine.
I mean, you're, we're probably about the same age. I mean, back in the day it was only like meathead were taking creatine, and that was like a bodybuilding thing, but there was really no. Uh, awareness that, uh, how important this particular supplement is, especially for women when it comes to bone density and muscle health, cognitive health, basically anywhere you're getting, you know, high ATP uptake.
So, you know, we're seeing a huge, huge, uh, uh, explosion in sales with our creatine SKUs specifically with women.
Sam Rhee: What, what happened to life aid hemp? Uh, that was out and now I don't see it.
Aaron Hinde: you know, unfortunately, [00:22:00] regulations from state to state were, were so, uh, variable that we could ship to certain states and not others. And then it really started to throw a wrench into, you know, the core Fidaid business, uh, because we couldn't, Do, you know, credit card transactions on the same page for hemp versus the other SKUs.
I had issues trying to get in on Amazon and so on and so forth. It was a shame because I love that player profile and I did, I did like the way it made me feel, but the juice wasn't worth the squeeze, so to speak. Yeah,
Sam Rhee: Got it. Let's talk a little bit about your personal challenges. So, um, mine whose mom what really struck me was that back in 2020, you lost your home in Santa Cruz to a wildfire, which is so it hits homes now because West LA and the devastation that. Is happening there. Um, you survived your family, survived, lost pretty much everything.
Now that you're seeing that down in Southern California, what do you [00:23:00] reflect on with your experiences at the time? And and how you feel about what's going on now?
Aaron Hinde: Chatting with her later today after 50 years in the same place, you know, the. It's a deep sense of loss. I mean, I'd say the longer you've been, you know, in a, in a home and, and the more kind of effort and sweat you put into it. I mean, my kids were, were born there and grew up there. Like, you know, you have a real sense of, um.
Of not only belonging, but also that, that it's, it's part of you. It's like part of your DNA. So it's, it's almost like losing, you know, a loved one or, or piece of you, piece of your identity that goes away. And, you know, we lost everything and I had put. 22 years of, of, you know, hard work and [00:24:00] toil and sweat equity into that property, developing it from when it just had a deer trail, when you couldn't even see anything.
And then, you know, we opened up a beautiful ocean view and, you know, developed and had, you know, multiple places on it over time and had just finished a beautiful 150, 000 tree house up to Redwoods, 50 feet with the bathroom. And I mean, the whole thing, it was, you know, it was a work in progress and, uh, to take the hit.
Both financially being, you know, severely underinsured and I'm sure that's going to be a case with, with a lot of the folks because the insurance dropped and now it's uncovered California. So you've got the financial hit. You've got the really the, the fight or flight mode that it puts you in like, Oh my God, what, you know, what am I going to do?
Do I even have my wallet, my credit cards? Do I have my passport? Like, how am I going to access these things? And then. As time goes on, you know, you realize like, oh my God, you know, all those pictures are gone and, you know, my, you know, my grandparents, you know, my grandpa's wedding ring that [00:25:00] he, he gave us and like all of these like personal items that are part of your identity.
But it's also an amazing lesson, you know, and it takes quite a bit of time to be able to reflect back and say, you know, it actually happened for me, not to me. I'm not a victim. I remember. You know, interviewing with some media after the fire, and they said, Oh, you know, fire victim Aaron Hine. I said, Well, let me correct you right there.
I'm not a victim of anything. You know, I'm not a victim. Okay. Well, well, fire survivor. I go, I'm not a survivor here. I'm a fire thriver. That's what you can call me, you know, because, uh, how we identify and the stories that we tell ourselves after tragic situations determines whether we become a victim and whether we're suffering or not.
You know, suffering is a story that we tell ourselves about pain points in our life. I mean, pain's inevitable, shit happens. I mean, houses burn down, we lose loved ones, we have breakups, [00:26:00] businesses fail. And, you know, that was a massive turning point when I was going bankrupt back in the day and overextended on real estate and living in the RV and nothing was working out.
I look in the mirror and I said, look, You have a choice. You meet me. I got myself in this situation. I take full accountability for where I'm at. And guess what? By taking full accountability, I have the ability to get out of this situation, make different decisions. You know, anytime I'm someone that's finding someone that's in a challenging, uh, part of their life, it's not necessarily making better decisions, because I think we're all trying to make the best decision if the outcome's wrong.
So it's like, make different decisions. Just make a different decision and keep moving forward. And, uh, you know, minimizing that amount of time that we have a pity party for ourselves and go, okay, I may not see how this little piece fits in the overall mosaic right now, but I do have faith over time that things will be coming to perspective and And who knows what it is.
It's a heavy sense of [00:27:00] loss. You know, you're, you've got to go through some grieving, but with time, you know, now I go out and it's like, wow, my view is better than it's ever been because there's no trees, you know, there's things now that I'm back on the property. I'm so appreciative of. That maybe wasn't there before.
And knowing that I can lose everything and I've lost everything financially a couple of times, I've lost all my physical possessions now, like I can lose everything and guess what? I'm going to be okay. And, and you mentioned that email I sent out, you know, a couple of weeks ago, you know, my wife, I put my wife's quote.
At the end that she always reminds me, she said, it all works out in the end. And if it hasn't worked out, it's not the end, you know, and life is this amazing journey and without the pain and brief periods of suffering without that, how do we even know to experience joy? How do we even know to experience the elation [00:28:00] of when, you know, friends and family and our community, you know, comes together and supports.
It allowed me to learn to be a receiver. I had never been a receiver. I have a hard time getting, taking things from people. But when people were outpouring and, like, sending me socks and underwear and started to go fund me and doing all these things, like, I needed that. I needed that support and to have, you know, my community come out and support me.
Made me so grateful for the community that we have and also made me more of a, um, a, you know, just of a, you know, just a empathetic type person like, you know, knowing that everybody's having their own struggles, you know, it's like so easy to come to. Quick judgment about things. We don't know what people have gone through and where they're at in their life.
So when someone cuts you off in traffic, instead of just being a hothead, like maybe I used to be, I go, well, maybe [00:29:00] their wife's in labor and they're trying to get to the hospital, you know, who knows, like, we don't know.
Sam Rhee: That's a lot of wisdom. Um, speaking of that email, that was one of the most, like I said, impactful emails I've ever received from a company or the head of a company.
And this was something that you sent Tuesday, December 31st of this past year, and it was dated. The email was dated September 30th, and it was a text exchange that you had with your wife, Rama, and, um, and you screenshotted it, and, and I'll write, I'll, let me say what it said. It said, your, your wife said, sheriffs are here, they came with news about Luke, who's your brother, and you said, what news?
Tell them he doesn't live with us, please. And your wife said, Luke had passed. I don't have details. His body is at Shur Memorial. Uh, and she said, I'm so sorry. Lord have mercy. And that hit me like a ton of bricks. I can't believe how impactful that was that you shared. What made you want to share that with us?[00:30:00]
Aaron Hinde: Sorry, it's a little hard. Well, look, there's a lot of products out there, you know, and, uh, you could say, oh, my products better than everybody else's. And, you know, we make choices on more support and what companies we want to support with our, with our wallet. And, you know, that's part of this great society that we live in incredible team. and all our company is more than just FIDAID and the products we put out. It's the people behind it. It's the story. It's all of our incredible team. You know, it's all the, the, the effort and time and thought that goes behind, you know, everything we do. It's our ethos. It's, [00:31:00] you know, the product is one aspect of what makes that, that up. And so, I found the more I can open up, which is not natural for me, I'm a very introverted person, I it. just innately, and so, you know, being introverted, Open, being more engaging is, is a challenge for me, but it's a, it's a great challenge, a necessary challenge.
can relate with the more that people can relate with what's going on, I mean, you should see how many emails and texts that I got after that. I mean, I had one person text me and like, normally I would just, you know, delete the year end type emails. And for whatever reason, I felt compelled to open it. felt compelled Their, their little brother, who is also named Luke, and also passed very unexpectedly, and uh, she's like, I can't [00:32:00] even tell you how, you know, much it, it really hit home for me, you know, reading this, it was the exact message that, you know, I needed to hear at that point in time, and it's like, These products for me are all about changing people's health trajectory, like if I can get them off a monster or off a Celsius or something, that's like, imagine that compounding effect over time.
You know, with that type of lifestyle change, and if I can have that same trajectory change for, for someone that might be in a depressed, depressive state or in some type of a funk or feeling like, you know, the, the world's kind of, you know, closing down on them to, to be able to, you know, open them up and let them know, hey, other people are going through the same challenges and it's going to be okay, you know.
We're in this together as a community, and, uh, you know, that's really why I choose to, to open it up [00:33:00] and, you know, put out my cell phone and just let people know where I'm at, you know, this is, it's life, we're all living it, we're living it the best we know how, and, uh, you know, it's not perfect, it can be messy at times, and lots of challenges, but it's also, you know, amazing, and I don't know if anyone got out to see the moon last night or this morning before sunrise, but, We're so blessed, you know, like God is good and life is good. It's an amazing period of time to be alive.
Sam Rhee: It was such a powerful reminder about gratitude and, uh, and regret and loss. And so as soon as I read that, I reached out to my two brothers who I'm not as close as I should be. And I, I just told them I loved them just because of, of that. And I thought that was so powerful. And, and I was so grateful for the fact that, that you were able to share your loss and regret and, and, um, and, uh, that made me.
Better. It made me a better person because of that, [00:34:00] which I really appreciate. Um, which I never would have imagined from a CEO and president of a Of a beverage company is it's amazing that that just blows me away. So, um, you can do good anywhere, no matter what you're doing. And, um, and, uh, the fact that you keep that in mind with you personally, as well as your company just makes me feel, uh, like there's really a lot of good.
In the world, which, which I appreciate, um, uh, so, um, let me talk to you a little bit. Let me switch a little bit gears and talk about you've you've talked about CrossFit and I, I know there's been so many changes going on with CrossFit and you probably have a best. One of the best perspectives about CrossFit as well as as a successful entrepreneur.
What is the future of CrossFit? Where do you think it's going? Do you think it's going to go where it needs to go? You shaped your company. How is CrossFit the company doing?
Aaron Hinde: [00:35:00] How's it doing? Well, overall not well right now, I would
Sam Rhee: Okay.
Aaron Hinde: Yeah. Yeah, it's not, it's not, not well for a variety of reasons. Some of it's just, you know, bad luck, you know. There's been a series of things that have just kind of added insult to injury for CrossFit. But, and look, you know, I've met the leadership, I, you know, I, I, these are good people, they're, they're smart people, you know, there's a lot of, you know, ridicule, I think, and, and some of it, I don't think is, is really founded.
I think a lot of it is just, you know, how things have played out and people maybe not having a real grasp on. How businesses function or if, if the business is being bought by, you know, private equity group, well, they want to return. That's the whole point of them, you know, purchasing a business. If I was running CrossFit, maybe that would be the best way to answer this [00:36:00] question.
Here's what I would do differently. And here's some things that I've been saying for the last 14 years. You, you know, I, I grew up in CrossFit. You're obviously in great shape and a CrossFitter and active at the gym. There's two types of people. There's people that are pro crossfit, and then there's people that have an opinion about crossfit, right?
And if we went, and the reason I say this is very similar to chiropractic in a lot of ways, you know? It's like, you go and ask somebody on the street, Hey, what do you think about chiropractic? They're gonna be like, oh, my chiropractor saved my life. I threw my back out, I couldn't move, and I went in, and they fixed me, and it was amazing.
Or they're gonna be like, oh no, those guys are crazy, and once you go to chiropractor, you're always gonna have to go, and they might give you a stroke, and, like, you just can't move. Certain objections. to be certain how are we as CrossFitters not handling, and especially from an HQ perspective, handling the objections that we know every single person that has a negative view, [00:37:00] every non CrossFitter, let's just say, already has about CrossFit.
What are they? I'll tell you what they are because they have not changed since the very beginning of time. Oh, to start CrossFit, you already got to be in great shape. Right? If you're a girl, what's going to happen? You're going to get too bulky, right? Or, number three, oh, you're going to get injured if you do crossfit.
These are the number, the top three objections, they've been like that since the very beginning. So if I'm HQ, and I want to provide value to the affiliates, which is what this should all be about, because are like, oh, well, how many people, I know Siobhan always asks people if they're affiliated still and if they drop out.
Due to the price increase, which went from, what is it now, it's up to like 4, 000 or something,
Sam Rhee: Yeah, like three and a half or something
Aaron Hinde: yeah. And my point is, it doesn't matter if it's 3, 500, it doesn't matter if it's 35, 000, okay? It doesn't matter, that's not, that's not actually the pain point. Because if I was delivering, if I'm [00:38:00] CrossFit HQ and I'm delivering you as a gym, 30 new members every month and you know that the lifetime value on that membership is 50 grand each or whatever, I could charge you 30, 000 a month and it's still a great deal, right?
So it has nothing to do with what they're charging, it has to do with the value they're providing. for the cost. You need to, with any service or product, you need to exceed the, the perceived value needs to exceed the, the cost. Okay. So number one, a massive marketing campaign dealing with the top three objections, which has never been done.
Okay, you need to be, show people that are completely out of shape doing a beginner's class in a very safe way and transforming, there's amazing transformative stories in CrossFit. There's no modality in fitness out, maybe outside of like the Marine Corps boot camp that has the that has transformative power of the CrossFit box.
So you need to deal with the [00:39:00] objections and show the transformation. And then number two, they need to. Get the marketing machine going and drive people in the affiliates and be able to track them. And you could give a report to each affiliate owner. Here's how many leads that we sent your way. Now, if you can't close the lead, that's on you, the owner.
You're not going to be around very long, but here's the lead that we sent you. And there's already people in the space that have been doing this for years doing, you know, Instagram and Facebook ads, TikTok marketing, et cetera. There's lots of ways we can do this, referral campaigns, et cetera, to drive people into the affiliate. the then you're increasing the perceived value, the actual value, relative to whatever the cost is, and they could make a lot more money and charge a lot more of the more members that they're tracking that are driving into the affiliate. It's as simple as that. So why those two things have never been done? done? I'm at a complete loss. Those are the first two things I would do if I was taken over. Simple.[00:40:00]
Sam Rhee: with you.
I think that would be a solid thing. Aren't going to do those, those things and, uh, it, it's, it's, you're spitting truth right now to me, at least on that. Uh, that's it's, uh, it's terrible that, um, they're not going to do what I think they should be doing in terms of success and growth and, and, uh, that they've been floundering for as many for as many years as they have right now.
I agree
Aaron Hinde: It's a win win for everybody. It's a win for the community. You're getting more people in shape and in the CrossFit gyms. It's a win for the affiliates by driving members in and taking care of a lot of big objections that people may have. That are unjustified and it's a win for HQ because they'll be able to charge more and keep that revenue model.
And then when everyone's like, Oh, CrossFit's great. Yeah, they send me X [00:41:00] amount of members every month. Like you have a lot more people going, well, I want to start an affiliate if that's the case, you know, and having this type of model. So it's, it's the challenge becomes, and I think there's a big takeaway and this is, you know, we, everybody at.
LifeAid gets, it's hard to see, it's a little branded notebook here that we all carry around with us. And in it we have our core values written at the front of the book. And core value number 10, always play the long game. Always play the long game. The problem is right now CrossFit HQ is playing the short game.
And they should be playing the long game, because the long game is beneficial even in the short term. That's what they're failing, I think, to realize. And if they were to handle these things and drive more value and drive memberships in boxes, Yes, it's going to cost an expense, but it's playing the long game.
It's going to increase the enterprise value significantly and make CrossFit cool again. I mean, [00:42:00] right now, you know, it might be more exciting in Europe, but domestically, you talked to and, and you talk to affiliate owners, I talk to a lot of affiliate owners. Hey, how come you're not affiliated anymore? How come? How about this?
They are affiliated, but they drop CrossFit out of their name. It's Santa Cruz Strength and Conditioning instead of Santa Cruz CrossFit. Yet they still pay the affiliate fee. Why did you drop CrossFit out of your name? It's doing me more harm than good. Do you know how many times I've heard that? It's doing me more harm than good?
I mean That should be a massive wake up call right there, doing me more harm than good, like oh shit, what are we doing with our brand where people are still paying us but they don't even want to market it anymore?
Sam Rhee: It's got to be so big. Why don't we move
Aaron Hinde: one, create the most fun, healthy, holistic, and fulfilling work environment in Santa Cruz and beyond.
Sam Rhee: they don't even want to market? [00:43:00] Let me just I, when I, um, scheduled you for this podcast, I just wanted to look at the energy drink industry a little bit and it blew me away. Um, the numbers are insane. So energy drink sales were 53 billion dollars. Two years ago, it's supposed to grow to like 86 billion a year in 2027. Red Bull is valued at 22 billion.
Monster is like 50 billion Celsius is a network is worth is like 6 billion. And, uh, the buyouts have been insane. Coreg, Dr. Pepper bought ghosts who I never heard of in my entire life. I've never seen a ghost beverage in my entire life. Just bought them for like 990 million for 60 percent ownership. Um, All of this.
Now I look at LifeAid and I'm like, this is [00:44:00] the next announcement that's going to be made is this acquisition here. No.
Aaron Hinde: No. No. No. Ha ha ha. Well, I'll tell you, I'll tell you a couple reasons, you know. We are unwilling to sacrifice, um, our core values and our ethos. We will never have a beverage that is artificially sweetened with sucralose, aspartame, or ACE K, which does kill your gut microbiome. Uh, you know, you, you look at some of the studies and be like, Oh, the sucralose level is so small and you excrete it.
Like, well, no one, no study has been done on low doses over. 10, 15, 20 years on what that does to your body. Uh, we'll never use artificial dyes, red this and blue that. We'll never use synthetic caffeine that all of those drinks have that comes from these giga factories overseas with no regulation [00:45:00] whatsoever.
Um, our products, uh, uh. Having a supplement panel and not a nutrition panel. Well, why is that? Well, there's, you know, that there, there, in the 60s, there was, uh, something that the FDA passed called GRAS generally regarded as safe for food products, which is complete crap. I mean, if you look at At the food additives in the U. S. relative to Europe, it's like they have like 70 approved food additives and we have like 7, 000. I mean, it's mind blowing. I'm probably off on the numbers of it. It's crazy what we allow in our food and what they don't. And there's a lot of little things that we know is crazy. Like we use the methyl form of B12, methylcobalamin.
Right? Which is the superior form. It's more bioavailable. You know, it's, it's a better form, period. period. There's no question about it. Guess what? The methyl form is not gross because they haven't updated these things since the 60s. [00:46:00] The cyano form, cyanocobalamin, which your body does break down to cyanide in small doses and does excrete it, unless you are diabetic, pre diabetic, or obese, then your body doesn't really excrete it that well. Well, Nobody wants cyanide accumulating in their, in their body. Cyanocobalamin
Cyanocobalamin is gross, you know. So there's all these like little things that, if you're actually focused on doing the right thing, playing the long game, and creating the best, most efficacious, healthiest, cleanest product available, All these other companies that you're mentioning with these multi billion dollar valuations, people think that they're healthy, especially women going towards like a, uh, a brand that you previously mentioned that's up to six, eight billion dollars or an Alani or some of these other ones.
They all have synthetic caffeine from gigafactories overseas, which is horrible, nasty stuff. There's a book called caffeinated. If you want to go down the wormhole on synthetic caffeine, uh, [00:47:00] which. Came out of World War II, the Nazis developed it, and this is like, it's Monsanto and Pfizer collab from back in the day.
It's crazy! Synthetic caffeine. They all use cyanocobalamin. They all use artificial sweeteners, sucralose, aspartame, or ACE K, or a combination of which. Right? And we're just not going to go down that road. So, road. So, you know, we're happy being where we're at and, and continuing to develop great products and servicing our community and, and gyms and direct consumer and high end retailers, like, you know, Whole Foods and Sprouts.
And, you know, that's, that's where we stay in our lane. I
Sam Rhee: I mean, you guys aren't, you guys are pretty big to like your revenue is what, 20 million a year. They're estimating. You don't have to tell me the actual, uh, that people are valuating you at over a hundred, 120, 140 million, something like that as a business. Um, I understand. So let me ask you two questions.
One is. You said you wanted to grow to [00:48:00] like a billion dollars or 200 million in sales or something like that. Like some, you obviously, as a company, you want to grow as big as possible. One, how are you going to do that? And two, what if a company like PepsiCo said, listen, you guys do what you do. We respect the way you guys do it.
We'll just give you a crap load more money to leverage yourself into a bigger player, but you can keep, we won't have you compromise how you produce your product.
Aaron Hinde: mean, of course, we would look at anything that, uh, that was proposed, um, at the end of the day to, to really grow. You know, top line to from where we're at, uh, to where I think we can be. It's really a distribution game. You know, you look at all those other brands that you mentioned. Not only, you know, they all have massive distribution.
They're on a Coke truck or a Pepsi truck or a Dr Pepper truck or a Budweiser truck. A Red Bull truck, right? Bull. Like if you start paying attention to these delivery trucks cruising around your town, they're [00:49:00] one of like four or five companies. So it really comes down to, you know, getting the distribution to really go for a massive land grab and go wide and go everywhere.
Right? You also have to have, you know, consumer demand. Right now, the average consumer, and, and I'm not talking about. You know, California or, you know, there's certain health pockets that people are actually aware of, you know, what type of B 12 they take and, you know, these things mean, you know, what type of sweeteners are being used, these things mean something to them as far as their criteria of purchase, a lot of the United States isn't there yet.
You know, they're not there. I spent six years in Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania. It's not there yet. You know, they're just behind everything else from a health perspective. So we would need the general awareness to catch up to say, Hey, you know, these are things you should be looking for in the foods and drinks that you're consuming, and people to start making different decisions.
And it is happening. It is happening. When we first [00:50:00] started this, there were the big three energy drinks and no one thought that would ever be disrupted. It was Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar. Well, guess what happened? Bang came along and, and disrupted that and knocked out the number three. And then Bang got knocked out as quickly as they came up by Celsius.
And now they're the new number three. And why are people drinking, why is Celsius so big? It got up to a 20 billion valuation because it brought in women for the first time into the energy drink category that women had never participated in. They never drank Monster or Red Bull or Rockstar, but now women are drinking an energy drink because of this perceived health benefit from these various brands.
Well, It's only going to be a matter of time when they're actually looking at the back of the can and go, Wait a second, I thought this was healthier than my, than the monsters and stuff. And they look at it and go, well, it has actually the same ingredients. Why is it healthier? Well, maybe it's not, you know, what else is there out there?
And so over time, there'll be a natural discovery towards getting [00:51:00] cleaner and cleaner and what you're consuming. And, you know, that's where we're going to be waiting as we always have been, you know, right at the finish line, when you're ready to really make the leap on to more of a clean. Uh, ingredient profile
Sam Rhee: It's, it is crazy how the success of these drinks are not based on the quality of the product. It's really on the marketing. Uh, when they market to kids, not kids or young, young men, it's the sour patch flavor that they, that they market. Or if it's like some macho dude, it's the elk's blood flavor. And if it's the women, it's quote, the healthy type, uh, um, product.
And like you said, You're right. No one ever lost money betting on the ignorance of the general population. It seems like in general, it's going to take a real long time. It is happening, like you said, but it's, it's a long game for them to sort of see, um, I mean, there might be certain events that might sort of hasten this.
I'm not sure. It always seems like [00:52:00] something big happens. And then, um, it, uh, little jumps and starts happen in terms of health, but, uh, it might happen. I admire you for doing that. It just might take a long time for that to happen. I'm not
Aaron Hinde: and we're in it for the long haul where, you know, we're 14 years into it now. And, you know, uh, if it, if it takes, you know, another 14, so be it. I mean, Celsius didn't really take off until. You know, like you're 15 or 16. They, you know, they kind of went under almost multiple times and it had kind of a Hail Mary pass right at the end to really turn things around, turn around their positioning and that kind of thing.
So these things do take time. We're, we're a profitable company. We're, you know, got a great team, a great core team. We've got a great consumer base. You know, most of our new customers still come from referrals. So like back in my Cairo days, it's like, that's the best. You know you're doing good work when you're getting a significant amount of referrals and any, you know, gym owners out there, that's one of the top [00:53:00] metrics you should be looking at. How many referrals are we getting? If they're not there, then you need to be changing your systems to, you know, to create and stimulate more referrals because and I'm excited
if you're doing great work in the world, people feel compelled to talk about you. Like, think about it, Doc. Like, what's the last time you had an amazing experience at a restaurant?
New restaurant opens in town, you go, you're with your wife, like, wow, the ambiance is great. The host is fantastic. You know, the food, everything, the waitstaff, like, everything about it. What's the first thing you do? You know, when you get home that next morning or whatever, right? You feel compelled to go tell all your friends or your patients about it.
Oh, you got to go check out this new restaurant. It is amazing. Let me tell you what they did. Blah, blah, blah. Right. You are compelled. So if you're not getting referrals, you're not being compelling enough in the experience that you're delivering to your people. And so that's always, like, [00:54:00] the metric that I always, like, look at.
Where, where are referrals? Are we being compelling enough? You know, are we educating people well enough in what we're all about and what we're, what we're doing?
Sam Rhee: Absolutely. Um, talk to me, uh, in closing a little bit. I know you also invest in, in other businesses or entrepreneurs. You're, you, uh, you do a little bit of, um, paying it forward, I would suppose, in terms of looking for other potential ventures to, to help fund.
Have you found anything that has been really promising or, or what's that experience been like?
Aaron Hinde: It's fun. I love it. I love it. I, you know, I, I can provide a lot of value from the zero to one. Crowds like young entrepreneurs, you know, if you're a young startup, there's a thousand things that need to go right and one of them can literally sink the ship, you know, and so like helping guide people to to avoid that one inaccurate thinking that can.
That can really sink it. [00:55:00] And then also supporting, you know, great entrepreneurs and people and products that I see come along. I mean, my favorite one right now is a company called Good Wipes and what they are is an all Organic, flushable, think of a baby wipe, but it's made of all cotton. This whole thing about microplastics.
And now there's microplastics in our testicles and our ovaries. It's like, it's crazy, right? It's crazy. They say there's like a credit card worth of plastic in our brains. And now, I mean, this is insanity all coming probably from water bottles and plastic cutting boards and who knows, right? That's the same thing that was happening with baby wipes.
I mean, everyone uses baby wipes on their little young kids. And, and here, these things are just. It's all plastic. They don't degrade. I know they don't degrade because I have a septic tank and we can't use them because 10 years later, open the thing up like they're still floating in there. They don't break down.
So, this company Good Wipes came around and said, hey, we are creating an all organic cotton [00:56:00] baby wipe with no plastics in it and it's great for, you know, adults and kids and they they break down and minutes and in septic tanks that aren't polluting the oceans and centers. That's that's a plug for it.
Sam Rhee: That's pretty awesome. I love that. So any final, um, takeaways where, if a gym wants to stock your products, if, um, anyone else is interested in reaching out to you, what's the best way to do so?
Aaron Hinde: Yeah, for me personally, just my name is on, you know, all handles from LinkedIn to Instagram, Facebook, et cetera, Aaron Hind, uh, at FitAid, uh, on, on all handles as well. And then, uh, if they wanted to come on board, uh, they could email me directly, A as in Aaron Hind, H I N D E at, uh, lifeaidbevco. com.
Sam Rhee: Aaron, it's, uh, been such a pleasure to talk to you. I feel really inspired actually now that I've listened to you talk about your life and experience [00:57:00] and, uh, Is there anything else you'd like to say or share before, um, before we sign off?
Aaron Hinde: I'll end with my wife's quote again, because it's just such an important thing to keep in mind that, you know, it all works out in the end, and if it hasn't worked out, it's not the end. So, keep moving forward. We're all in this struggle together. And, uh, you know, God is good. Life is great.
Sam Rhee: that. I love that quote. I'm going to be using it forever. Thank you so much.
Aaron Hinde: Alright, Doc. Thank you.
