Taste Salud's Tyler McCann: Build the Moment, Break the Model

Welcome to Models and Moments. I'm Chris Hall alongside goated SVP of strategy, Luke Austin of CTC, and the one and only Tyler McCann, operator, co-founder, COO, doer of all things over at Taste Salude. This is Models and Moments. Luke, I'd love you to frame this up and tell us why this is important, why we're doing this today. Why is it so crucial?

— It's interesting. the place that we occupy in the world is as many who are familiar with CTC will know is very indexed on the model side of things right we get able to forecast revenue really tight predictable forecast to inform decision- making uh M& M's incrementality testing cost caps on media very modelly um in our language and our approach and the magic of the partnerships for us over the years that have created Um I think the most sort of productive working relationship is when we are paired up alongside the operators, the co-founders, the leaders on the brand side that uh do what they do incredibly well across the business, but we categorize it in this second bucket of moments, right? Creating these moments and putting their brand um into uh into the world in a unique way um so that we can execute it execute against it on the back end in a predictable way as well. So models and moments is going to be that there's always this pushand pull dichconomy sort of yin-yang and being able to frame up predictability and forecasting against trying to break the model through these net new moments and creation and Tyler

McCann is the perfect person to come on board and be speak to that. T Salude is an absolute rocket ship of a business. I wouldn't just be saying that. Um we work with brands of all different sizes, all different growth rates and Taste Salude has a secret sauce that um is uh there are a lot of pieces involved in that and that's in no small part due to Tyler and what he's done with the brand. So that's what we're going to be exploring here, models and moments and the leaders, decision makers, founders of the brands that are creating these moments that are creating outsized returns and putting them to up the upper percentile in terms of the growth that they're seeing as a business. Tyler, brother, we appreciate you for making the time and joining us here. We know you're scaling everything to the moon and Mars and beyond when it comes to Taste Salude. I think we've got a uh giveaway coming up here with Taste Salude. Uh a u you know, a nice thing that is going to happen. And also uh you know, good ads, good ads. ai, AI, our presenting sponsor here. Every brand doing 250K uh per month or more in GMV uh could get a free month of white glove meta ads management. That's nice. Also, brother Tyler, I'd love to just start this out here. Man, if you could back up the truck a little bit for us and give us some context on Taste Salude for those who don't know. Uh, man, I' I'd love for you to just back up and Google Earth out a little bit and tell us how you guys have got here to this point with your hydration product that leads with taste and everybody loves.

— Of course. Yeah. Hopefully the connection is uh you guys got me okay. — Oh yeah. — Okay. Perfect. Hey, Salude. Um, it's been a journey so far, a fiveyear journey. specifically this week. We're been our fifth birthday, but during COVID, I met Josh, who's my business partner, and um you guys still got me. Sorry because it's really choppy on my end. — We're good. You just go, brother. — Okay, I'll just go. Uh but yes um met Josh content creator he grew a YouTube channel that he started building in 2010 um really built around uh skit um Josh first generation Mexicanamean so a lot of his content leaned into humor um very like based around his culture and when I met him during COVID um he really pitched me this idea um of creating some flavors based around his culture um mex his Mexican heritage and really like introduced me at that time to aqua frescas uh a lot of these flavors I didn't grow up drinking and when I did meet him I was working at a supplement brand called Muscle Farm which is a like longtime legacy player in the category mostly known for protein powder um but had some flashy sponsorships back in the day with athletes like Tiger Woods the UFC they

were it kind of hit their peak to be honest before the whole D TOC boom and were massive at stores like Costco. So I got a lot of great experience from that because Muscle Farm was so big at Costco, right? Um another brand that kind of made their name at Costco was Liquid IP. So it's kind of sitting on that insight like okay this is this category is showing some signal that it could be something big. And then if with Josh, you know, pitching as well, the insight to build around his heritage, those two things kind of came together and that led to taste salude.

— Tell us about this piece, Tyler. I um and I appreciate that context that you given us there, but uh me thanks as you guys have continued to grow and scale this thing. Uh man, I have heard that you guys are the US side official partner sponsor of the Mexican national team with soccer etc. I have heard that there are some big moments coming up in your marketing calendar. Uh man, I'd love to get, you know, the skinny on what's going on and also uh start talking about, you know, frameworks that you have in place for, you know, leading up to these big moments in launches in your marketing calendar. Not an easy thing to do marketing wise, operationally and to orchestrate all those things together, etc. — Yeah, no doubt. I mean this is um what you mentioned um yeah we are now the official hydration partner of the Mexican national team obviously very top of mind with the World Cup starting next week. Um, but something like this has really been in the works for over a year that that led to it. We did it

prior to um but just to speak to what you had mentioned that we're launching with um really awesome, you know, associating our logo with literally the national team's logo on a package. we strategically thought to ourselves, you know, when would be the best time to launch this. Well, maybe like the the same day cup starting where Mexico is the host country playing first game. Um just things that align um with our brand as well. Again, it's built around Josh's heritage. Um you know, probably in the ballpark of 65% of our customers are Hispanic. um this team really means a lot to them. So just the handful of things like really all coming together that really make this special, not just another launch, you know, like thrown on a random day of the calendar. But I wouldn't say like how did the framework that got it was just uh a lot of planning and uh really being like months ahead of this um which kind of just came from experience in the business right we're five years in on in year one uh you know when I first met Josh we launched with one flavor I could have never imagined this but as you go right you get experience you learn what works the business grows and can actually be able to support something like this from a marketing investment to take a swing on it.

— Yeah. So, Tyler, break it down a little bit more for us and and the folks listening uh the component parts around these moments. You mentioned this isn't new for you this launch. This is a bigger launch for sure, but you guys do this consistently throughout the course of the year with new uh with new flavors that are being launched and collaborations that you're doing. And over time, over the years, I'm sure you've built the playbook, right? Expanded that playbook where four years ago, the new flavor launch or the partnership looks really different than what you're going to do 10 days from now, a week from now, whenever that is coming up soon with this new launch. And the reason I'm asking is there I think there's there are like many layers that make a moment like this successful in the way that it is, right? you mentioned to the core which is there's a key partnership with a an entity or a person that has a lot of connection relationally in the world right like people are there's a fan base there's a religion around it secondly though you product specifically for them right it's not like here's our evergreen product let's just do this partnerships you already have product and the people that it's going to be ser serving and then you have we'll keep going on P's because we like frameworks here so Then you have the place, right? So which it's Mexico, the game, the host game. You have these layers. What are like as you look back over the years and some of the things you guys have learned that have worked really well. There's not a lot of brands orchestrating moments in the way that you do because it requires all these five, six, seven layers of things that make it really unique and really effective. So reflect for us a little bit like the over the years the moments that you've been launching and how that's led to this launch and what all those layers are that are critical to really making it as big as it can be.

— Well actually as you were saying that I think it like my our whole business right was like a smaller version of this in a way. It's like hey I'm partnering with somebody that already has an audience. um like it's bringing something to the table that can like really get this into the market where it's like built around his heritage. There's already a story built in there. And so um like I in some ways since we started we've just sort of been like leveling that up um as we go. But more specifically, right, like if you're just thinking about like what do I do next? Um it obviously comes down to product. Uh you have to have a product. Uh, and like the way that I always think about that is, um, probably the most important thing when it comes to figure out like what product should you launch next, it does have to start with margin, right? like um to me like um as a as like a central part of this because if you pick something that just doesn't have the margin to be successful in today's world depending on however you plan to advertise it which for most of us is going to be through meta or through online advertising there's just certain margin structure that you absolutely have to have right and um at Muscle Farm I actually kind of learned that firsthand that like you know they were in a category protein where especially recently with um a lot of the prices in the whey protein market there's not margin at all. So they uh we didn't become in sales and of bankrupt. Um, so first and foremost, you need to make sure you have a category that — yeah, where you can be successful just on like on paper — ideally as well, which is what I was saying about, hey, having that insight about liquid IV, there's tailwinds here. You want to pick something that is currently in demand. Um, and and then you also need to know like who your customer is going to be and maybe what makes you different. So what the way that I approach this for any new category and we've launched a few others besides hydration is you need to become an absolute expert in the entire category. You need to know maybe who like the top 10 brands are, what their formulas are, who their customer is, what makes them different, how they're marketing it, and then you need to take a step back and ask yourself, okay, how am I going to compete in this space? what what's going to make someone buy me versus the brands that are already doing it. And ideally, you have a strong answer to that and in our case, you know, like it was more than one thing. Um, but a big one was being built around Josh's heritage. Okay, nobody's really doing that. Um, we also had differences in formulation, leaning in the low sugar, uh, having some other benefits. So, it's like you kind of need to stack a handful of these things and like figure out like, you know, where you get traction. Like when I first launched the business, like uh with Josh, we didn't know like is this actually going to work? And um lo and behold, like we

we take a small bed, right? Like uh only like thousand units or so, and we learn, okay, actually there is a market for this. And then from there, it's been like constantly iterating. So um that can be and iterating can be things like as simple as bundling um it can be as complex as the one we were talking about on this call right like which is really advanced uh official partnerships with national teams and licensing and all of that. But even for us, we started quite small and it's always like you're learning as you go, right? You're making small bets and then when you get the information that shows like, hey, which again we're five years in now. Wow, we are a hydration brand. This is our top selling product. Like let's make a bet here and uh and keep like, you know, leveling up. That's kind of something we like to do here is just like learn from the road map but then constantly keep looking for like how do you level this up — even further. Um — so a lot there but hopefully — no that's on any thing there.

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That's incredible that the so I think the starting with a product and a category that's growing with margin against the product is like that even you could just stop there like there there's so much there that the the category that you're in like a way that every brand can get a sense of this is like go to Google trends look at your search history over time right and you can see like are the trends for this search term in a state of decline or incline or are they just stagnating and you can get a sense of like what the category is doing largely because the truth is there's a lot of marketing that's happening from other brands and entities that are leading to the success of a category as a whole that can be the way that you ride right and that can help and make it a less challenging sort of road than it could be otherwise. So the c the state of the category and the trajectory that it's in I think is something that's overlooked uh quite a bit. Um and it adds a lot of momentum. And then you add to that a product that has enough margin to be able to do all the stuff you're talking about with right like if you had a category that's expanding and a really good product but your cogs on the product are 70% fully loaded after delivery. Like you couldn't do any of this stuff, right? Because you got to license the product and then you got to think about paying out the creators and all of a sudden you have no margin left, right? Like that's it. that it's all gone. And so that foundation I think is um is a key is a key insight. And so I'm curious time going to this moment that you guys have coming up to get a little more tactical around it on this foundation that you have built to get more tactical

around this launch moment. Could you walk us through the sequence of what this moment is going to look like? Like I in my mind it is like a you have like a symphony of like 70 different instruments out there in the string section. You have like everything that needs to be orchestrated in sort of this perfect timing and unison together. Walk us through that in as much detail as you're able to of like what are the next couple weeks going to look like? What does it look like to orchestrate and sequence a launch moment like this? — Yeah. No, no doubt it has been a learning experience through the five years of like pulling from um pulling from launches and things that have worked and then like putting those into the rolling those into the next one. But for something like this, it's it's already underway, right? Like um the Mexican national team just played at the Rose Bowl, a soldout game that was considered the sendoff for the World Cup. So prior to that game that on that day of that game which was last Saturday that's when we revealed this on social media we created a big moment um the social media roll out of any new item is always very important so you want to like build hype um very important like typically I would say for something as big as this like it looks like a slow roll out of teasers getting people guessing creating tons of engagement, some sort of dramatic reveal, um getting them excited, reminding them that it's coming. Um another big piece for us is um we are like heavily uh we work with a lot of affiliates. We're very prominent on Tik Tok shop. So making sure that you are giving ample time for seating product right and getting it in people's hands because on launch day you want to create like a momentum or sorry a title wave of uh of momentum to have tons and tons of content coming out all of people promoting it and uh we've

learned as well like as we've been doing this right the more time you can get for preceding being just the better your results you're going to see on launch day. Um, in this case, and we'll do this few and far between, but we're actually having um an event like a pretty large like 500 person event

— which is essentially a — Yeah, it's a watch party for the the game, which just makes sense, right? And Josh is an influencer. He's friends with a lot of influencers. So the idea with that, right, is we're going to get a bunch of creators to come in together in person, support this launch, have the product plastered everywhere, serve it, the teams front and center, the whole world's watching them. And that day alone also just create the content. But we're also engineering the day to have like upwards of like four people there recording content. Whether it be a girl on our marketing team with her phone out getting Tik Toks, first reactions, guys taking photos, um somebody doing a recap video, somebody filming for Josh's YouTube. Important is shooting it all is having a way to like getting it out quickly in the moment, right? and like in keeping that wave going. So it's like the preceding all that content state and then this event and then of course there's all just the basic like blocking tackling things making sure you have a good amount of ads right um to support this on launch day making flows updated your website your SMS plan um all of the above really um I I can say like working with a partner like uh CTC really gives the team like very clear directions on like those blocking and tackling items. It's like, hey, this is

what we need from you and it allows us to um to focus on all those other like intangibles that I went through um like planning an event which requires a lot of work. — Boy, it sure sounds like it. That sounds like a mountain of work. And you know, I think a lot of people, Tyler, from the outside looking in, they probably see a moment like this transpire when it does, and they're like, "Golly, Tyler, he's just so lucky. He won the lottery of life and this all of this just happened so naturally. " And um you know, it didn't take uh it didn't take months of preparation. It didn't take six months of calls with the Mexican national team or whatever it took. But I would I'd love if you would back up some just guesstimate dates on you know 30 60 90 days you know x months even on the operational side. I you know I think as far as you know you striking me as a quasi marketer quasi um operations person kind of a mix really and I you know I would think I would think in order to pull this off with the preceding of product man you I mean it's got to product's got to be in hand you would hope at least a couple weeks before the day happens you know but then there's the briefing of those creators and then of course there's the making of those ads and those being approved and ready to go live and then you know the updating of the website and then there's the pulling off of the event which is a whole another ordeal in and of itself. I mean you know what does this start looking like? Is it you know 60 days out we want to have all this in place 30 days out we place. Do you have any guesstimates as far as concern? We've been planning this like for since last year. But I actually something I should say that's very um important uh and that we do at our company. We have a weekly roadmap call and it's essentially an all hands. So

every single person that works at the company, whether it's CX, uh myself, who's like pretty much leading the call, um to really everyone like we're and we're literally going through the whole road map from where we're at today, like talking about this event next week to going all the way to what's happening next January. — And we do that every single week. — And every single week the and we go through every single line item, right? Like week by week. And so sometimes like if the event next week is happening, it's a conversation that a lot of marketing ideas are happening, right? If it's the event that's happening um in October, maybe the operations team is like having a lot of conversation around where we're at with packaging, how much we're going to order. Um but nothing is a surprise. And the further out that you get, by the way, all of these ideas, they evolve in like because you're not rushing to just get something out. So, when you do plan ahead, um that's kind of how the magic happens, right? Like we couldn't just come up with all of this and get it out if it wasn't in the works uh for quite a long time. I would say as well by the way by doing this it creates like sanity for everyone and it actually is like the way that you keep stress at bay because it's like hey it even allows like myself and Josh and our team like you know we can go on vacation people know what's going to happen if I'm gone like you know you guys are going to hold down this launch in July. Um, but when you're just like willy-nilly like throwing things on the calendar, then it's and or you know the teams aren't talking to each other like, "Oh my god, op operations just told us this is ready for launch and we haven't even done the photo shoot. " Um, that can be a problem. Um, the way too, by the way, these things come together is it's very import times, right? So the way a road map comes together is you got to know the lead times for everything. Whether that's from idea to sample to packaging concepts to taste approval to ordering it to getting it to your warehouse to how long is it going to take for the team to get content. Christy mentioned seating like all of this stuff like goes backwards from a launch date. So, and then if you really want to get strategic, right, like in this case where you start looking at the calendar and saying, "Hey, what are the best dates on the calendar for our brand or certain initiatives? " In this case, June 11th. This is such an epic moment for this partnership. If we can make it happen on this day, that would be the day to do it. So you walk yourself backwards and you know like uh last a I can't even like last August you know the operations team knew that they needed to have product in the warehouse by May 1 f or by uh April 1st — because all the marketing team was waiting so it's it yeah it's a lot of planning but just so everyone knows by the way like this business started with myself Josh and like we we we've been figuring it out as we go so you get better um with each launch, like I said. And you also have to learn like some things are going to work, some things aren't. If it doesn't, dig it. If it does, double down and keep iterating on that to do it bigger and better.

— Brother, THAT IS WILD. THAT'S WILD THAT YOU'RE that your team knew, hey, last August, I got to have this thing in stock and ready to go in April. THAT IS CRAZY. THAT'S CRAZY. — YEAH, that's rad. I think this is Tyler. I I've got two questions actually. One on sort of organizational design and you mentioned this with like the your team structure and the org and the other partners and like I'm I think folks are probably pretty curious about what it takes to pull this off at this scale in terms of the people and the partners etc. But we'll get there a second because I have a first sort of more immediate followup question which is what we're doing when we what you're doing when you're building out these moments is you're uh bringing in we'll use the language of build the model break the model at CTC a lot right like we build a forecast we build some sort of model and then we go and we try to improve upon that all the time so these moments that you're creating are model breaking moments these are moments that you've never done something at this scale before in this exact way and there's a lot of unknowns related to it so I'm curious what the um what the uh planning and then iteration process looks like against that. Right? So you look out into the future and say, "Okay, we're going June 11th is when this is going fully live and we're launching that. " You have to make some assessment on the inventory that's going to be needed to make that happen, all the creative, right? Like the resourcing within the team, the media spend, the investments, etc. the you have to make some assessments around the thing months and months in advance, the thing that you've never done before at this scale, what it's going to look like. So that's like how do you do that? And then when you get to the moment and the actual impact of the moment is different than what you anticipated because it's going to be even if you're the best forecaster in the world, right? Like then you see the impact of the moment and what do you do from that point on to iterate? Okay, this changes the plan in this way and these are the adjustments we're going to make. How do you deal with we're creating a mo a model breaking moment something we've never done and but we still have to plan against it. — Well

— just to be clear on something too and I should have mentioned this when I was talking about like how to approach the roadmap from the start. Like a big part of that as well is knowing like what's within your capabilities, right? So before I started a business, I was already working in supplement industry for 8 to 10 years. Like I meaning that like I have a path to market So, I'm actually like not this initiative next week. It's not something we've never done before. This is — if we really break it down like this is a flavor extension of the uh the product that Josh and I launched um with a different marketing like approach — and even doing the we've done events, right? We've done events associated with launches. they were much smaller scale than this and we know that we they we know that they are a way to um generate positive attention on launch day. So um like I would argue that a lot of this is actually not like that risky to me um which is why we're confident making the bet. Um because we're leaning into like where we have experience. Um which is another big thing of like hey what should I do next? Like if I was like pitching to the team that we should do some crazy category or create like a new brand um to that that's actually risky. um like if I if it's a new c-acker that I don't have like relationship with or payment terms with and I don't know if this is the consumer is going to like it that's an entirely different conversation. But if you're

taking your top selling item and like layering this like just marketing superpower on top of it um to me it's not risky. And also, by the way, this isn't like the first time somebody's done a licensed uh partnership. Um, it's not even the first time we've done a licensed partnership like uh so I feel like there's all that like you know there's strong evidence that if you do flavor licensing or in this case sports marketing and it is very uh meaningful and connects back to your core consumer. It's not a big risk. um like the investment's a lot, but all of these things like over five years like they didn't start where we're at today. That's kind of the point I'm uh to make here. It's like you start small. You do your homework on the category. You look at like what um like you know um like what's your supply chain? What people do you know? Like what products can you actually make? like what are you currently making? Uh are the guys you're working with like what can they do when it comes to new things so you're not just like you know starting from scratch. Um and in my case like I did work for a company that was pretty massive and they went bankrupt. Um so I learned a lot of what not to do if not more um uh in that process. — Yeah. No, it makes total sense. Yeah. How can we build upon the successes of the past and add in new layers to them, additional layers that are going to propel them even further? That it makes total sense. Um and the margin optionality you have against the product, the terms that you've built with suppliers over time, all that gives you the ability to make the pivots that are needed based on what you actually see, right? like that's rather than it being a constraint of we need to sell x many units for sure at this margin and anything outside of that is going to be a really harmful sort of impact to the business. So my second Chris I'm going in with a twofer here. Sorry I did preempt it. — Come on. — So this the second piece you were bringing this up earlier of the weekly roadmap meetings you do with your it's an all hands meeting around the weekly roadmap. I think one of the questions folks may be asking their head is how do you make this happen? What does it take to make this happen from an organizational re resourcing perspective? And the layers like there are um direct to consumer e-commerce brands even just in the eight to nine figure range have all sorts of different organizational structures and roles and there's new roles coming up all the time where it's like oh now there's head of creator what whatever right like there's all these new roles that are popping up. So like in terms of the organizational to that and sort of the key roles or divisions that you have you've grown you and Josh over time and then the other partners and um and support resourcing you have against this like what does this take for someone to like you guys have a thousand employees and 1500 agency like you know not at that level but yeah what is that what does that structure what does that design look like? Well, we we specifically have like 20 people that work for Salude right now. Um, I would say probably more on the marketing side, specifically — supporting content more than anything, uh, graphics and all of that. Uh, we're very lucky because like I mean like again and not this maybe not relatable to everyone, but I was personally like the one owning the road map in my old role, right? I was working I was reporting to the CEO like saying hey here's what we want to launch go make it happen so in my shoes now it's like I just have an understanding of like what needs to happen in ops marketing like I said it is a function of like knowing the processes that each team is o overseeing right to support those things um but it doesn't have to be a big team like uh it could just be as simple as like, you know, like it's like what's the product going to be? Getting that approved, getting it on order, figuring how much to order once it's at the warehouse, getting the product to the marketing team to create the launch strategy, which is going to require content, ads. Um, and from there like, uh, you know, there's like obviously a lot you could take that, but um, yeah, I don't know if that's like the best answer to the question, but I think it no matter who's in what seats, how big the teams are, it's important that people are just talking to each other and they know what they're responsible for and when it's supposed to be done. Um, a lot of people on our team started pretty like, you know, green, um, like fresh and I've like trained them and they know like they've learned this system. They've learned the lead times and now they know how to like what's being asked of them and executing on it. Others uh, I've been fortunate to like get some of my old employees uh, to join as well. So, we're all just a lot of people that work at Salude like we're from this world specifically for powdered supplements. Like if you told me to do something like in another category that was like completely separate from this like apparel, I would probably like not have as strong of it an advantage. Um so on that aspect it's like just lean into your strengths and if you don't have those strengths like I'm, you know, finding people that do if that's something you want to break into.

Tyler, I think everybody listening is going to be very encouraged by what you just said. Pulling off something at the World Cup level uh while having 20ish employees is what I heard. If I heard that right, I think that's going to be very encouraging to everybody who is listening. I would love to I'd love to know this um a couple of things here, but we can combo burrito uh and put it into one. I would love to know when you look back on this after this epic moment with the IRL experience and creators going forth and all of this. Um, what to you makes it a win or you know maybe not so much of a win? Um, you know, how are you going to judge win or loss on this thing? How do you evaluate that? And also just uh this one obviously is an incredible moment and I think anybody who has a pulse would realize man this is such an incredible moment but not all of them are and you probably need some evaluator for like looking at your calendar and thinking like yeah this is the one let's bet on this let's double down etc. How are you going to judge this as a win or loss? And then in a bigger way, how do you know when it's right to uh double down and bet big on a moment?

— Uh that's a good question. Um like for me, this partnership is already a win. Um, regardless of what happens, like I just um I think just like for us to be able to associate ourselves with that Mexican national team logo um like you know connecting ourselves to that IP that um is so important to our customer um and hopefully is bringing in new customers that might not be familiar with us, right? But they they recognize the team logo. That's a big win. Um, for something like next week though, my goal is to just go all out, right? And what I mean by that from like a P& L standpoint is if this launch like honestly breaks even um or even maybe it loses a little bit of money, the value that it's going to bring to all of our other products is where the value is at. And like we

have a omni channel business, Target, Walmart, um CVS, tons of retailers, Amazon, Tik Tok shop, where there's plenty of other flavors that are for sale every day. And that's where like I feel like the real value is at is that you're investing heavily in this moment. you're creating the attention, especially when it's so timely with everything going on with the World Cup, that if you can like make that investment and realize like it's going to benefit you for months and maybe years to come, that's that that's kind of the mindset. — Juicy. Oh, I like that answer, boy. That's good, Tyler. That's good. — So good. the ti Tyler what's striking me a lot is it seems like you think about things in multiple dimensions along the lines of making asymmetric bets right where like you talked about finding a product in a category that's already growing a product that has really strong margins and in a space that you have high confidence and high leverage in already right okay that's you're making asymmetric bets across those dimensions and then with this launch um uh even if this thing breaks even or losing some money on the initial launch, the residual value of it is going to be uh well worth the investment that the like it just makes it such a clear asymmetric bet to make. Um and that's something that's like it's that's coming across to me in terms of how you it seems like you think about things and approach making investment decisions on behalf of the business and looking for these other opportunities. Is that is that uh intentional on your end? Is that true of sort how you like view these different options in front of you and planning out different moments and which one to do versus the other one? — Yeah, it's totally accurate. Um and like I said, we chose to do this with our best-selling product line. We have like a handful of others, whether it be energy, green, sleep, now collagen. So, it's not like just willy-nilly. Um but it uh but yeah, no what she said is totally correct. Um and it also like by doing it in this line it creates like the most Halo value as well because that — what we're most well known for. — Yeah. — Wow. I'm uh I'm excited to watch the World Cup and I've

— By the way, something to just mention I what I was thinking about too, sorry to cut you off like problem with planning this far in advance um is you guys are like asking me like what do you like what's like to me like next week that things like baked good to go like I can see like there's still some things we're putting together. It's going to be a big success. Like I I'm pretty confident in that. Like one problem and people always say this like hey make sure you like enjoy the moment while you're in it. — Yeah. — Like my shoes specifically because I'm the one who's like on the front end of this road map. — Yeah. — Like I'm like oh I just approved the flavor we're launching in January. um you know like so but yeah and to that end by the way um it's important when you are developing your road map and stuff that you have like options right like I don't totally know what I'm going to do next summer but if I have like flavors on the bench different concepts that are kind of in the works like then you have options and you can see how things are going like we just launched a skin and beauty collagen might not be a bad idea to have a couple other flavors on the bench if that thing just takes off or if a retailer and asks for exclusive flavor at Target. That way you're not like scrambling to um react and like respond. Um, and I know that could sound crazy like uh like oh can't like to plan that far in advance, but like it if in our case like we're working with like I said the relationships with our suppliers, the co-ackers, the people making it happen. We're just like operating in our zone of genius. Like if I'm not like trying to go like launch a completely different concept, right? If you look at our product assortment, they're all stick packs. They're all power based. Eventually we might expand beyond that, but when you start doing stuff like that, um that's where re in my opinion real risk comes in. Um because it's changing the whole dynamics of the business.

business. — And I'm uh I'm fired up, Tyler. And I'm fired up because uh you're staying in your zone of genius and you're doing it big and it makes me excited to watch the World Cup. I want to know uh when officially is this thing coming out. How do I get my hands on it? I'm also looking for my invite to the actual thing. I'm sure that's in the mail already. Uh you know, how do I get in on the big launch here? — Well, I was going to say, Chris, I can send you some product after this, but uh no, the launch is um the launch is on June 11th at 700 a. m. Pacific time. So really, really excited for that. Um, yeah, and we'll definitely make get the make sure that invite gets in the mail if it isn't already. — Incredible. Incredible, man. Well, I appreciate you making the time and joining us, brother, here on Models and Moments. And this is going to be a huge one. I totally agree with you, too. I mean, this thing's I mean, it's already a win because uh look at what you're doing, man, on this huge stage being involved with the Mexican national team. It's incredible. Uh we appreciate you sharing your brain and um giving us perspective on how far back you guys are doing what you do and sticking to what you know. And uh we look forward to having you back, brother. We appreciate you making the time to join us, man. — Definitely. And I'm glad we got through that with the connection issues, but hopefully that comes across and everyone can pick it up. — Okay, you guys. — It will. Highest honor. We're going to clap you out. Highest owner on the show is a clap out like that. Boy, he deserves it. — So, so good. I mean, there's just like we could have kept going for a couple more hours on each of those points. I want the their channel expansion. He mentioned Amazon and Tik Tok shop briefly, but having multiple points of distribution against this thing around the launch like they there's so much complexity that it creates for the business of like understanding we're driving the meta ads and we're doing we're launching creators and we're doing an event and we're capturing demand across all these other channels that um that yeah just decision- making amidst that uh against that amount of signal. Whole separate conversation there but they just have it all. They have the distribution channels. They have the creator le their creative volume on a monthly basis. They have such a strong project. They have great leadership obviously um and ideiation. So I'm stoked on them. We've got

a draw drawer full of taste salude uh pouches under the microwave here in the CTC office. So every day like pull it open, try a new flavor. — You got to pull those bad boys out. Especially when Mexico is playing, you know. I um as he was talking you know at the scale that that they are operating at. I mean the timelines that he was delineating um you know it it like hurts my brain to think that way. It does, but totally necessary because of uh all the things you just underlined when you have so many things at play. Uh sampling the product, having it ready, um you know, working with said partner who happens to be uh one of the biggest most successful clubs and national teams that has ever existed on planet Earth and then coordinating creator seeding ads going on all the IRL event. And of course, you want to capture seven different ways from Sunday and then of course cut it up and use it afterward, but also uh cut it up and post right then and there so that you can make the most of the blitz creek and golly, you know, it takes so much to pull that off and then to get a little window in that, you know, really in his mind, this thing's got already baked and he's working on January. — That is very insightful. It's very insightful. But these moments that have seven, eight, nine, ten layers to them, that's what's necessary to get that ahead of them. And I think one of the things he brought up to your point about like they're launching this thing over the next couple weeks and there's execution, but there has to be the teams planning six to nine months in advance. That's why like we really believe that the sort of day-to-day execution against the core expectation of the business, having that handled in a really solid way against a team that does that excellently is so necessary so that the folks that are really good at all the things that Tyler's talking about can go do their thing, right? Otherwise, you get dragged back from January into June 3rd, 2026, right? Like you get dragged back and forth that it's challenging to do that. And so having the responsibility live in those areas. We have the privilege of partnering with T Salute obviously on managing really the day-to-day execution of the core thing, right? And helping making sure all the pieces are in motion. We have a forecast we all believe in. We're driving towards it. If we're off course, we can get back on track with the goal of like the thing that's going to keep growing the business and create the outsized returns that they're doing is what all the things Tyler's talked about, right? and being able for him and core members of the team be able to live in that world is so important for that to be able to take uh take fruit. — Well, you know, to pull that thing off. I mean, it's like you're saying, you need everybody aligned on the inside, but you also it's necessary. You need aligned actual partners on the outside like in line and execute that. I thought very insightful. They've got a weekly meeting where they're like looking at the entire road mapap. I I've I've never experienced that. But I think it would be incredibly helpful to do so. Everybody on the inside, all the partners on the outside for everybody to have that road map um planned out so long and ahead and then be able to execute and checklist, get back on the road whenever we deviate, etc. Um man that was really something — and what an inversion that is as well right like the what he didn't talk about which is what we do as well and what they do as well is weekly status reporting meeting for meta ad performance or Google ads critical right like necessary what he highlighted in the context of this conversation is the weekly roadmap conversation and the priority that lives in the organization to have everyone there — because it's the thing driving the growth right where that can so easily be inverted to where like what we do on like company C says Monday at 8 a. m. PS is we all hop on and we look at meta performance across our three different attribution platforms and that because this is the thing pushing the business forward and it's 30% of our revenue goes to meta. So we need to look at meta performance. Yes, it's important and it's a critical piece of it but it is not the driving force of growth. The road map in these moments are meta, the creative, the creators, these other sales channels. Those are the units of growth, the things that are injecting into these moments to amplify them. But the moment is the thing driving the growth and these things feed into them. And that paradigm shift is uh is apparent in and how Tyler thinks about it.

— You know, I will say one of the most helpful things in my whole career, I was at a small baseball company. I was the entire marketing team and we were growing like a weed for a period of time. This was Bruce Bolt. We were the we were one of the fastest growing stores on Shopify and we needed some real help. And our good friend Taylor Holidayiday came in to help. And you know, this was the very first one of the very first things he told me. He said, "Chris, everything that's inside of your brain, it can no longer live there. It cannot live there. You need a system. And when you're going to launch something, uh, brother, we got to be working 60 days out from there at least. And everybody's got to know what they're doing because this business, it cannot exist, uh, literally walking around inside your brain anymore. We've got to make a process here. We've got to start driving and building toward those moments. Um, you know, your hands and your brain, it can't make it all happen anymore. That was one of the most helpful things that I experienced in my entire career was that and him helping me through that. Okay, let's get inside a sauna. Meet a sauna. Let's start working this thing here, big boy. Okay, you work in this and then next week I want to see it, you know, don't let me down. That was uh that was crucial. That was crucial for me. That came from Taylor. — Yeah. Asana and I have a complicated relationship. I'll leave I'll leave that at that. But defining here's the end goal we're working against and then here's all the pieces that are necessary to making that happen. Like — June 11th at 7 a. m. PST, right? Like that's what they've been working towards um this whole time and it being on that date. And it forces — to in order to make that happen, what are all the other million component parts that need to happen to get there? That's what forces the timeline and the resourcing necessary and the investment necessary to be able to get there.

there. — Goed. That was a great uh model and moment. What a great way to start this out with taste salude and uh our good friend Tyler who is making it all happen. Um as we uh as we wrap up here, Luke, u you know, I believe there is a giveaway. There's a giveaway. — I've heard things. — I have heard I've heard that there's a giveaway that has taken place. I don't know if we know who that is yet. I think everybody needs to go and click the registration link, make sure that you are in there and signed up, etc. So that uh you can make sure I mean you should literally do it right now because I think we're I think the giveaway the winner is going to be announced before we're off of here. — Yep. We're about to do it I think here in 30 seconds. So if you haven't sign up — sign up now. Better sign up now before I pick this thing out of my hat. I've been hiding it up here. I've been hiding. No, I'm kidding. Uh yeah, we're going to pick the winner here real quick. Everybody needs to go register. Also, uh I will just reiterate here uh presented by good ads. ai and any brand that is plus uh 250K GMV uh on a monthly basis uh you get registered, you get a free month of white glove meta ads management. That's nice. Uh it almost feels illegal to be honest. uh white glove free uh whole month you know that's uh that's nice too so many thanks to good ads. ai AI presented by here. Um I guess I as far as giveaway winners are concerned. I don't know who it's coming to. — I've got I've just got the word. I've got — You've got the word. Tell us who it is. — I've got the word. So Cameron Stangle from the Honest Kitchen. Sorry if I butchered your last name there. — But you will be uh you'll be getting some of this of the product that Tyler just walked through the uh this new launch they have coming up. um that's eight days away. So we'll coordinate on the back end to get that over. But congrats Cameron. Thanks for coming hanging out and uh and everyone else as well. We we'll be doing this for each of the upcoming episodes. The brands the leaders from the brands that are coming on board have all gen generously agreed to bring uh some product uh that will be used for the giveaway that's specific to the thing that we're going to be talking about. So we got some cool things coming up in the on the coming episodes related to that.

— Absolutely we do. And I will say as we keep doing this uh we're a little over time but you know what we love this and we live for it and so we're excited about it. Um you know as we keep doing this uh week by week use the chat um you know questions that come up. We'll either ask our uh we'll either feature them and ask our guest live what you submit or uh you know maybe we'll do an amalgamation at the end and we'll talk Q& A Q& R if you're more comfortable with question response instead of question and answer. Um you know we can do those as we continue to roll out here. Uh Luke, uh any final words of wisdom uh from your side before we exit today's live? — What could I add to what Tyler shared? I think the I think this is where this is the reflection for myself is in conversations like this in other podcasts or live shows or meetings. I think that the temptation or the feeling can sort of be this uh anxiousness to I need to do I okay this too and then that other thing I listen to and saw on X I need to do that too. And what I would just offer to myself and speaking to that feeling as well as to others is what Tyler shared which is I'm doing this thing in this very specific lane and that's why it's going well. this specific category with this product at this margin that plays to my competitive strengths and we are doing packs of dry however you describe it like we're doing this very specific thing right and that is what we are we have the highest leverage and so whatever piece of this conversation speak to that in you and you can map against your unique advantage of your brand or your leadership or your team skill set take those things and apply them the highest leverage way and not taking anything wholesale of course but that's what I would just offer And I think Tyler, you mentioned earlier, I was encouraged by that from Tyler of identifying, okay, this is the thing that we're really good at and we can create something unique for the world and that's what I'm going to focus on and I'm going to take the pieces that are going to contribute to that, but I'm also going to be willing to say no and cut the fat from the other areas that don't serve that end outcome. And I will say I will say, hey, if you want to be like Tyler, um, and maybe you might be thinking like, golly, I'd like to get there and plan that far ahead. And my lord, I'm just underwater, though. I don't know how I would make all this happen. I need some help. I need some Maybe you just need to go talk to Luke Austin is what you need to do. And say, uh, Luke, give me some of that brain share, some of your mind. I need a good partner. Help me get this thing up and to the right and to, uh, the moon forever and ever. And I bet Luke and the rest of the team at CTC can help you get there. Uh I know Taylor did for me. — Um many thanks to good ads. ai for presenting this and helping us make this happen today. Many thanks for Tyler McCann him coming on the show and giving us some brain power for how they are powering this thing and creating this huge moment in their calendar with the Mexican national team with T Salute. And I will also say um I think we got a registration link here for upcoming episodes. Um should be dropped in the chat probably sent in an email afterwards as well. Uh June 10th next time we will be here. I believe we're going to have Skull Candy with us. Is that the case Luke? — Yep. I believe next on the docket that one. — Yeah. For mult multiple reasons. the brand leader that'll be talking the what they've experienced over the past several months in particular too in terms of this conversation and how they made it happen. It's fascinating the and the giveaway too. I mean — and the giveaway. So yeah, get in on the giveaway. Uh and then come join us, ask your questions. We'll keep it dynamic and uh we look forward to talking with Skull Candy. Many thanks to everybody who joined us and we look forward to being back next week, June 10th. We will see you there and then we'll see you on the other side.