Latest / Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast / Yew Nutraceuticals | How a Science-Backed Wellness Brand Launched Retail-First

Transcript

Yew Nutraceuticals | How a Science-Backed Wellness Brand Launched Retail-First · Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Selling on Giants, the show where we unpack how brands grow across marketplaces, digital channels, and retail.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: In the going retail segment, I'm joined by Chris McLean, co-founder of U Healthy Aging Nutraceuticals, a science-driven brand focused on improving health span as we age.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Chris and his team bring unique perspective to the retail conversation.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than starting online and later expanding into stores, they've taken the opposite approach.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Launching with a retail-first strategy through independent pharmacies and specialty health retailers.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, Chris shares a story behind you why the team spend three years developing their product and what founders should understand when preparing a brand for retail, especially when education, science, and trust are central to the product.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fun conversation.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's jump in.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Chris, thanks for coming to the show.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know we met at the Chifa or CHFA event, and I'm excited that I have you here in the studio.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for taking the time.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Before we kick it off, I'd love to know.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me for people who may not know you yet, uh, you, Y E W N Y O U, what does the brand make and who is the product really for?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, you healthy aging nutraceuticals, we are a uh a little more of that, a healthy aging nutraceutical company.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: We make um evidence-based solutions for target areas that need attention as we age.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we have an aging population, that's great.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: We are um extending our lifespan, just science and uh healthier lifestyles.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing a great job of that, but at the end of the day, our health span isn't being reflected in that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And health span's the years of your life you're healthy.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's starting to get talked about more and more, which is great.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so interventions on how to expand your lifespan is or your health span is kind of what people are focusing on now.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's where our company came from.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: How can we narrow that gap between health span and lifespan?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have a very large amount of experience in our team on the scientific side.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: We've been researching um these types of ingredients, natural ingredients.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we come from a pharma background, a biopharma background.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we're bringing that approach to natural products, which doesn't always happen, but it's necessary.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: It makes them safer, it makes them efficacious, um, especially in an aging population.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: You need products that are tailored for them, low ingredients.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you want to eliminate as many drug interactions as you can.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of polypharmacy goes into what we're doing.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the target is the aging population.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: So we have different products for different areas.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: We have bladder health products, cognitive health products, eye health products, uh, metabolic health, and products for skin.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: These are all things that need attention as we age.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Amen to that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually real longevity, it's something I follow a lot personally.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And um, Dr.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: uh Dr.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Eamon and Dr.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Arthur Brooks are two people I follow that talk a lot about.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh longevity.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what I find interesting, it's like um like women, they say like they live 10 years longer.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things I found out is like a lot of them will develop dementia or Alzheimer's.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so that last while they may live longer, that quality of life is is generally poor, uh, for lack of a better term.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's really interesting.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is that like I guess what led you to realize like this is something you're passionate about and that you want to build a brand and a solution around?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: So our team is what it is.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I fell into this team from another healthcare startup.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we had a previous company, we sold it, um, worked with them for a little bit, but it didn't go the direction we wanted to.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: So the team that is the U Healthy Aging team, we've been together almost 10 years now.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, we really work well together.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they're very scientific.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: They're we have a professor of pharmacology and ophthalmology, two pharmacists.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: One of them owns his own farm uh compounding pharmacy, the other one is a biomedical engineer.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: So we have internal expertise to do this.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: We have the knowledge on aging population, things like drug interactions.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so we really um going back to that, we have an aging population, improving health span, our background and understandings really um equip us to build something that can make an impact in that area.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where that came from.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, how can we develop products that'll help people enjoy the later years of their life?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty amazing.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the last point on this, because it's really interesting.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: We were chatting before we started recording, but uh what I found interesting you mentioned, Chris, is that it took you three years to develop the product to get it to market.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: What was that journey like?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like what what I guess what I'm thinking is like, how can it take three years?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Can you just tell me as much as you're comfortable sharing about like how you develop these, how you pick these types of products?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we have, I mean, we started the company with an overall, okay, what areas are we going to cover?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: And those five that I listen listed the bladder, brain, metabolic, um, eye, and dermal or skin.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then we thought, you know, what have we been researching for a long time?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: We've done it, we've got a lot of research in natural compounds over the years.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, what do we know helps with X area?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so we built a pipeline based on that of products for each of those five indications.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then we went through the regulatory approvals.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: We do most, we do it probably 85-90% of the regulatory ourselves in house.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: We're lucky to have that capability, saves us time, but also gives us control over it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then when we get these approved, we think, okay, how are we going to build that package that you, the end user, can see and see why it works?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: There's so many natural health products out there.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: Some work, some don't.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, is preventative versions, especially, they uh you sometimes you don't notice a difference, so you kind of have to hope.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: So we're building, we have been building that data package of the research behind it.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: We do our own research at Dalhousie University.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: We partner with other groups to do research, um, NRC, uh National Research Council, just so we can improve the information that goes out to the end user.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so it didn't have to take three years, but we really wanted to make sure we were ready for commercialization.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: And there were some clinical trials going on with our ingredient suppliers as well.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: We wanted done before we did hit go.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is, and it makes sense too.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like the this is not uh like a run-of-the-mill type product.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's backed in science.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have done a lot of research, so uh it's no surprise that it's it's gonna be a premium quality and a premium experience.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: On the packaging side, something you mentioned that I just want to make sure we talk about here before we jump into retail.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, sustainability was something that you also built this business around, and your packaging is beautiful.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I got to see it at the show.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's different from a lot of other supplement brands out there.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me about your sustainability goals and kind of why you went, why you're going in this direction?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so sustainability is one of our core values.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's something that we put thought into in everything we do.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: We have product lines that we're developing in our pipeline that are they're called co-products, but essentially the waste stream reduction.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we're taking what is waste to somebody else and we're turning that into a product.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: We have a prebiotic that is waste.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: We have two prebiotics, I guess, that are from extracted waste.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then we're working on a brain health product that is the waste from seafood harvesting.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: So they take the piece that they need and they have to throw out the rest.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we need the rest to make that into a product.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it's always been something that we think about, and especially with packaging.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you look at supplements, 99% of them they come in plastic bottles.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that we're trying to, we we thought, how do we eliminate single-use plastics?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, poaches are a way to uh to do that, so um, a lot less waste.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: We're looking at different types of biodegradables, probably not the best option for capsules supplements, but um, there are you know recyclable versions of these poaches, and that's areas that we're we're uh going in.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: So we went with the poaches for that reason.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty interesting, and also the um the utilizations.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize a lot of your raw ingredients are you know waste because they're not all of it's not used, but what a great way um to just make sure we're you know we're not just throwing this stuff out, throwing it in a landfill.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that is really really interesting.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um then no, let's jump into it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I found really interesting when I met you, Chris, at the uh the Chifa show is that you were launching.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this was your come to market moment and it was really exciting, and I was really excited for you.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd love to know.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of brands I work with being in the digital space, they start off digital and then we go retail.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd love to kind of hear your thoughts.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what made you decide uh retail was going to be the best play to get this brand off the ground?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a 1A and a 1B.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're right, a lot of brands, especially in the CPG, they'll launch online.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's easier to control.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: You have greater margins, you can control who sees it.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's the 1A.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's the natural one.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: The 1B is going retail, and I call it a 1B because we're not just going retail to everybody.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: We're what we're doing is we're going retail to people that can talk about the product.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: So natural health product stores, which understand um nutraceuticals, how to talk about why something works different than something else, and pharmacies.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: We're going into um independent pharmacies, ones where you or I would go and the pharmacist knows you and they say, Oh, I, you know, they know what you're on, they know um things you're looking for, and they'll have a conversation with you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so they will all be equipped with all the information on these products and they can really talk about the effectiveness.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the the second side of it.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: We're not launching full scale into retail yet because of that, but that'll be the next step.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: The hope is just to build the brand, the brand name, the trust, and grow from there.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really smart uh method of getting to market.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I what I find interesting about that, so you have you essentially have two customers.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: You have your end user, which would be the the person who's fighting uh aging, but then you also have this other customer who's like your affiliate partner, and they're they're gonna understand the product and they're gonna educate patients around this product, which is why.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So is it because the there is a level of education required that it made sense to kind of go the B2B route?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: There's a level of education required.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: We're a premium product.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: So um the reason for that is because we use high-quality ingredients, safe ingredients, low ingredients that get to where they need to go.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and because of that, you really need kind of that support of the you know, the healthcare practitioner or the front-end person working in the store or the pharmacist saying, okay, here is why this product is good.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: This is what it does.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, as an example, we have our bladder health UTI prevention and pain associated with UTI product.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's not just a standard cranberry product, it has a terpene in it that helps with the pain, but also we've been studying it in bacterial cystitis models and just bladder models to prove why it helps as well.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so we have been talking with pelvic health clinics and pelvic health physiotherapists that are interested in the product, and they can talk to their patients and say, have you considered this product?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's a lot of common overlap there.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of the approach is educate them and then they educate the end user.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty amazing.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: So is it because you have a background in this, you kind of know the players in the game, so it's easier to identify like these types of clinicians are who I should go after, and then you're emailing, calling, doing whatever salespeople do to get in front of them?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it definitely helps.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: So two of our founders are pharmacists, so that opens up the pharmacy chains all across.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one of our co-founders is a professor of ophthalmology.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: So she knows all of the people in the iWorld around here, and one of our products is an iHealth product, so opens up that chain for sure.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we do weigh heavily on our own um connections, but we also have a really strong ecosystem in the Maritimes here, a lot of uh incubator programs and funding programs that help pass that out.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we're we're pretty happy with uh the the uh ecosystem here and the help they give us.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty awesome.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's nice to have a system, whether it's government or through an association that uh gives you the contacts and the support.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of uh it's hard to go it alone, that's for sure.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty awesome.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is so as you guys are considering retail, so like because you're new, like what if I'm a digital brand and I've never done retail, and let's just say I'm doing the B2B because I'm a technical product for whatever reason, like what are what are just general considerations for getting into retail, speaking to somebody who's a layman who just doesn't really know outside of being a shopper?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: The the biggest thing I've learned through this is making sure it's the right retail location.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: So online you can you can really target who sees your what eyes see your product.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: You can do Google ads for specific things, you can go into Facebook groups that are for bladder health and and push.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: You can you know you can really target whose eyes see your product.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: You can't do that in a retail location, so you have to make sure the location is the right location for you.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they draw in the right people, they understand your product and can talk to them.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because otherwise your product made you sit there.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it I find that very important.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it can be expensive to go into retail.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, on the digital space, you control your price.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas when you go into retail, there's the wholesale price.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: So but for us, retail gets us into areas that we just wouldn't have a reach.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a cost that's worth it.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: But the important thing is making sure it's the right retail.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: What type of support do the retailers require from you?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's sure, you know, they want the wholesale pricing, but do you have to have an advertising budget?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have to show up once a month?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like what is that, what does that relationship look like with the buyer?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: So around here it is pretty relaxed in that we just there's no set any of that.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um we work together on how we're gonna do some advertising.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: We jump on theirs as they jump on ours.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we just do regular drop-ins with these stores.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: At West, where I'm on the East Coast, at West we have a distributor, and he's going to be working with these stores.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: We provide him and his group with all of our data packages, and it's things that would you would see on a so on the shelf in the store, there's also like a binder that would be there, and you can scroll through.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is some of the clinical data, this is what it's for.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like an information package that the person who's talking to the consumer can use, but uh also our distributors will have that.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: So that really helps because we've got a country in between us, so it's hard to get to those locations.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I could totally see that.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Regarding the product being ready for shelf, is there any considerations around ingredients?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anything around like expiration?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's a supplement, so generally 10 months or longer, I'm assuming.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but like for those brands who are thinking about it, like getting the products on shelf, like what's what are some tips you could share?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: Expiration, especially for us, expiration is a huge thing.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um we're, I think I mentioned we're targeting um independent pharmacies right now.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: But as you go to the the loblaws or you know, any of the shoppers drug mart um sobies them, they they will not, or they might have been more relaxed now, but in the past they won't take products that are expiring within a certain date.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: So expiry date is is huge.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: Health Canada actually um disappointingly made a change a week ago.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: So they used to, when you when you have a supplement made, you take the product that you've made and you take a couple packages, you put them aside and put them on what's called stability testing.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: And you're essentially taking it at certain points, zero months, three months, six months, nine months, and you retest it and see how it holds up, and that'll give you your expiry date.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, interesting.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: You used to be able to do what was called accelerated stability, and three months gives you nine months, so it's a three times.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: So you could you put it in accelerated conditions and it holds up, and at that three months you pull it out.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: If it hasn't degraded or a very small amount, then you get a nine-month expiry date, six months to 18 and whatever.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: So that used to be the way you could get expiry dates, but Health Canada now has said they all only accept real-time stability, so it's gonna slow things down.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: And in the in the beginning, people will have to go with expiry dates of their ingredients, and that's what you can use.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: So the lowest expiry date of your ingredient is what's considered your expiry until you get that real-time data.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So expiration dates are really important, obviously.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Very important on testing.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Very very early on, it's very important to get long expiry dates on your ingredients.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Especially for new, I could see that.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how about with the um the B2B?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any like um uh considerations in terms of like um the ingredients?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is there like do they understand all the ingredients or how it works, or that information packet that they have with with the onboarding, I'm assuming, as they get into retail, that's what they're gonna use to get up the speed on the products, the expirations, the use cases?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so they I I say they won't.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh many people will, but there are people that won't understand what to look for in a product and what ingredient is what.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes ingredients have one name, but it's actually another name that you know that you may not want.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it can be confusing.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: We make our products with that in mind.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: An aging population, um, most people, as you age, you're on at least one other drug, maybe a handful others.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: So the possibility for drug interaction just increases.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's a good point.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the other thing is as you age, your body metabolizes things slower.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: So more ingredients is harder to break down.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: So all of our products are low ingredients, um, only the minimum amount of ingredients needed for what we're looking for, and it's made that way intentionally for an aging population.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: So in addition to products, we're trying to build an education platform, uh, a way to inform consumers on their health, not just our products, but you know, how can you age better?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, interventions like exercise, the importance of muscle, building muscle and maintaining muscle.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: So important for overall body health.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: But with that is gonna be pay attention to the ingredients you're putting in your body because it you don't you may not need it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: So don't take it just because someone else is.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's kind of something we're trying to get more pop more common.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Pay attention to what's on the package.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: If you need it, great.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't, maybe look at alternatives.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And education, I can totally see that.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh educating the your reps, but educating the customer and for a premium product too.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I find with supplements that are more premium, like you have to justify that expense, and a lot of it is testing documentation on and all that other stuff.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um last question before I jump to some fun questions and then we'll wrap it up.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, how do you know?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: How did you know when your brand was actually retail ready?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, was there a certain point where you're like, we are ready for market?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what was that?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: What was that last hurdle where you're like, game on, let's do this?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know why it happened.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: It was something I was saying for a long time.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, probably mid-last year, I was I was ready.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: We had the branding, we had a lot of really good information.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: But we in the past, we've taken products, we've been an RD company.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: We take products, we build them, we validate them, and then someone comes in and licenses them and takes them away and does that all that themselves.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: So that's how we've always operated.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: But you lose, I've found you lose control and you lose the message that gets out there.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: So this time we're doing it ourselves, but it takes longer because we've never done it before.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I would have liked to have been on the market August last year, but it took time.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's there's a lot on the end that we've never had to do before that took time to get built.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: So um I think uh in if I was to do it again, the only thing I'd do different is start that part ahead of time.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: So the e-com was set up, all of the back end stuff that you never think you have to think about, like SEO and Google Tag Manager, all that stuff is set up.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then on that end too, so you guys have the um the product is retail ready, it's through the research, and now you guys are ready um to hit the market and kind of start selling it.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: What is um Did you launch a website first or did you like where was your first sale?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Was the first sale right to retail, or just kind of friends and family, that kind of thing?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: First sale was through the website, but shortly followed with uh a pharmacy chain in the uh the east coast here that wanted to buy the product to put on their shelf, and then a west coast one is the next sale.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just waiting to finalize a few things, but they're interested to have them.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: So the first was our through our website.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, I I'm not sure which one's going to be the lead when it comes to sales.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: I go back and forth whether I think the online purchases or through retail, but I'm excited to actually find out which one takes the lead in that.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you have sales, what does it matter?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: As long as we have sales, and those recurring sales are what I care about.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: I want people to take it and I want them to actually see benefits enough that they come back.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, lifetime value.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: I like that.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have a couple fun wrap-up questions, and only two, they're super short.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you can answer this any way you want, retail in one word is proven.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't had that.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why'd you say proven?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they've been doing it, so I mean they know their customers, they're selling.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: They're successful.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: I would hope they're successful.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: So they're a kind of a proven.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: I go into retail, I think they know what they're doing.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot what the numbers are, but because I'm in the digital world, I take it for granted.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's only like 15 or 20 percent of all commerce interactions happen digitally.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: The mass still happens in in general retail, it's still like a large swath.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: That surprises me.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I would think that that's more close to 50-50 these days.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people look on, I guess people do both.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: They'll look online and they'll go in store because they want to see, feel, hold something.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I guess that's why.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like that will shift soon.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think so too.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: It also includes like service stuff too.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like all commerce, so you know, like your plumber's never gonna be plumbing to you on a website, but it is what it is.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, what's uh what's next for you this year?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: So we're in the middle of well, we're at the beginning of a launch.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: We're waiting on Health Canada approval for two other products.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Once those are, those will be added to the launch.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'd like to be able to hire later in the year.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and a future plan is I I want to have a a manufacturing and research facility in the Maritimes.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have that.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, most of the time, companies will start and then they have to leave and go to Ontario, Quebec, elsewhere because those facilities exist.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think the Maritimes could use one.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: So our three to five year plan is to work on that.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: I've already talked to potential investors about it when we're ready.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty exciting, though.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's like uh it just sounds like you're having more control over the process and the output, which is great.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I guess later this year, maybe not even later, maybe mid-year, um, I really want to get that education platform up established and can just with continuous um education from our side, but I want to have it more back and forth.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: I want consumers to be able to engage with it instead of just absorbing information.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, with AI too, it's getting a lot easier.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So who knows what this, how interactive this will be uh in the in the very near future.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, this was great, Chris.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for taking time.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Just so everybody listening knows, uh, inside the show notes, I have the link to Chris's website, you, and I also have uh links to all their social media.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I recommend anybody who's listening, feel free to check it out.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're uh looking to improve your longevity, there's gonna be some great products on there.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Chris, any closing words before we wrap this up?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: No, this has been great.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I really appreciated our conversation at the trade show.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was great, and I was looking forward to this um being able to chat with you.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh this company and this space is a passion of ours.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're always happy to talk to anybody that will listen.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it just excites me when we're launching and uh I love uh I love what we're working on.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm happy to chat.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate your time with us.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Chris.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited for you.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: We met at the show.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's like well, start a starting a company is a lot of fun.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of work, too.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of stress when you're in it.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's scary and fun all in one.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Chris, thanks for joining.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it, Will.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: That was Chris McLean, co-founder of You Healthy Aging and Nutraceuticals.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Chris's journey highlights an important lesson for founders thinking about retail.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about getting onto shelves, it's about choosing the right retail partner, building trust through education, and making sure the product is truly ready for market.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: For brands in complex or technical categories, retail can actually become a powerful channel when the right experts are part of the sales conversation.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to learn more about you and the products, Chris had mentioned during this recording, you can find the links to their website and social channels in the show notes below, linked in the description.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for listening to Selling on Giants, and we'll see you on our next seg on our next going retail conversation.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in.