Athletes in Motion Podcast - EP 019 Chris Manderino

Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the Athletes in Motion Podcast from race to recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal and Kenny Bailey.

Tom Regal: 0:29

Hey, Kenny, how you doing?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:30

Hey, Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:31

I'm fantastic. What's happening?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:34

Not much. We got a guest with us today is Chris Mandarino. He is a former NFL player and currently the CEO and founder of Lyfe Fuel. And he's calling us from Italy. So welcome, Chris.

Tom Regal: 0:47

Awesome. Welcome, Chris. Thanks for joining us.

Chris Manderino: 0:49

Yeah, thank you guys. Great to be here.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:52

So what brings you from Italy? Why are you? Why are you sitting in Italy today?

Chris Manderino: 0:58

Um, well, I'd like to say that it's to study the Blue Zones and really, first Sardinian, who I am. But yeah, I'm going through the process of dual citizenship. My great grandfather immigrated from Italy. And so through the process, God son wins. You have the, I guess, the birthright to attain dual citizenship. And you know, I love to travel and really immerse myself into different cultures around the world. I think it really helps me become more knowledgeable and take stuff away from you know, how people live and eat and apply that to what we're doing like fuel. And I just really love like the Italian way of life and being able to spend more time over here and it just kind of helps me to reset and rebalance every time I get the opportunity to

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:50

the cyclists in Muse incredibly jealous of you that you're going to tell me you're biking at least through you know, parts of Italy.

Chris Manderino: 1:57

Yeah, so there, it's I've been I've done a ton of biking, but there's a hike I want to do. It's abajo blue, which is on the east coast of Sardinia, I was here last summer, and we had a chance to see it from a little Gambino boat, which is just incredible. The water is magical. And he's got these beautiful caves and everything. You can't get to it unless you kind of hike along the ridge or go by. I'd like to see it from the other side. And it's supposed to be one of the best hikes in Europe. And I could imagine how stunning it must be from on top. So yeah, I think we'll probably try to do that next month.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:35

That's fantastic. So, you know, previous, you know, we're gonna talk a little bit today about sort of nutrition and kind of what clean eating and stuff means. So before we get started on that, let's talk a little bit about sort of your kind of how you grew up in kind of where you were you were a former NFL player. How did it was a sport something that's always part of your family party life? Or are you the outlier? How did you get to, you know, ludicrous to you know, fullback, I guess would be the question.

Chris Manderino: 3:04

Yeah, it was definitely always part of my life. And so, you know, it's kind of multi sport athlete as a kid, you know, when I guess you could still do that thing, right? Baseball, basketball, swimming, I was really strong swimmer and swam competitively. And then my first year of football happened, I think, when I was like eight years old, and my mom kind of resisted because my dad played football in Michigan State but had quite a quite a number of injuries that really, you know, hobbled him in together, slipped disc in his back, or herniated disc in his back and his knees and my mom was also very athletic. She grew up in upstate New York, on kind of a ranch there and my grandfather had built a lake built everything I guess what spearheads water skier and a gymnast and a choreographer and a dancer. And so, you know, certainly in my blood to you know, have the genetics for it my favorite because my both my parents were super athletic. And so yeah, it's pretty much running around from practice, practice. And I have four sisters. They were all very active as well, they got into swimming and water polo, very competitively. So yeah, you can say definitely an active family all around.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:26

Was it a competitive family? I know with my brothers and sisters it was you know, always competitive to this day, which

Chris Manderino: 4:32

is sad, you know? It Yeah. Yeah, the competition never quite goes away. And now it's like okay, if it's not sport related, you know, whether it's like a board game or something, just the level of ambition and intensity is through the roof and you invite somebody over and they're like, what's wrong with you? Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:54

You're just another bones you're like, Yeah,

Chris Manderino: 4:57

but it's funny because like those like, you know, competitive battles and carry through to adulthood. Right, guys? You know, I feel like it's, yeah, everybody's trying to beat me and they team up. Yeah, it's it's fun. It's fun.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:11

So why have all the sports I mean, swimming all the other ones What attracted you to football despite the fact that you're dead? So here's your data over here, you know, hobbling and you're like, Screw it, I'm gonna do it anyway. Or was it just, it just naturally sort of fell in that way?

Chris Manderino: 5:26

Yeah, I think it was partly because of, you know, my dad played and just like a lot of his memories and friendships really came from football. So I could always kind of looked up to that. And then I think there's just something about football once I kind of got a taste of, you know, what the game was all about, and kind of that team environment and the physicality you know, just kind of, I really enjoyed it, you know, as much faster pace than swimming, swimming for me. I just got tired and bored with swim laps in the pool. And even though I was like, really good, it just I wanted kind of something faster paced and that competitive. Like, you know, maybe it's the violent part of it. I don't know. But yeah, contact definitely. Yeah, exactly. And so yeah, I think both because my dad is played at a high level and just the sheer love the sport itself.

Tom Regal: 6:21

What position? What position did your dad play?

Chris Manderino: 6:24

My dad was a fullback as well. Back in the day. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't play fullback until I walked on at Berkeley. I was no quarterback until back and linebacker and safety in high school. He played everything right. Yeah. And then you know, I was kind of coming out of high school. I was a tweener. So you know, I was too small to play linebacker too slow to play tailback, I didn't play my entire senior year at quarterback. So I didn't know what I could do there. And you know, Guy scouts just didn't know where to put me. And so a lot of those D one offers that I was hoping to get never never came my way. And so, you know, that was obviously a big crossroads in my life to try to determine how much further I went really wanted to pursue that goal. I had, you know, a lot of accolades coming out of high school and competed against some of the best players that went on, and we're getting all these scholarships, but you know, they just weren't coming my way. But fortunately, you know, Berkeley and a handful of other schools were kind of recruiting me as a preferred walk on. And so I was really kind of tasked with the choice of whether I wanted to kind of pursue that, and you know, pay for my education and get football go at high level, or to maybe go to a JUCO for a couple years and prove myself a pair or a smaller, one double A university or ivy league where they kind of have football as a pastime, you know? Yeah, this is tough, but I ultimately I really felt compelled that I could and I want to play on the biggest stage and that's what ultimately, you know, drove me to walk on at Berkeley and take that opportunity.

Tom Regal: 8:05

I said, you had some success there, too. Which, what were you drafted? Did you get drafted or were you? How'd you get into the NFL? Everyone's got a different path. And I'm so amazed by this because it's, I don't think people realize how difficult it is to get into the NFL. And then the second stage is staying in the NFL. Right.

Chris Manderino: 8:22

So what was your What was your? Your ticket? Yes, my my trajectory was, you know, I walked onto Berkeley, redshirted my first year got my butt kicked every single day. God has 200 pounds and then they threw me in a fullback I'd never played fullback and as you know, considerably undersized. And that was always you know, a battle for me but we had a terrible season that redshirt freshman year so they basically fired the coaching staff and brought in a new coach Coach Tedford but had success of an Oregon and you know you kind of cleaned house and it was a clean slate for everybody to show what they could do under this new coaching system and we're kind of beat up at tailback and spring football so I had a chance to both play tailback which has more comfortable and used to having that played out in high school. And also fullback and I just kept working and you know, going into summer the weight coach pulled me aside and say hey, you're doing well the coaches you're taking notice but you got to start eating and you got to vote up, you know, to be able to have a have a shot. And so that freshman summer I didn't stay up at Berkeley, I actually went back home to Newport Beach because you know, it was all on my dime. You know, I had to figure out like where to stay and where to eat. It was very different, right, like walk ons were treated like very separately. It wasn't totally included in the team that time. Tedford changed all that when he came in. But yeah, I was able to prove myself in fall camp that year and you know what I thought would take probably Three or four years just to get on the field and maybe have a chance to the scholarship and a starting position was significantly accelerated. So I was named the starting fullback as a redshirt freshman and put on full scholarship. And that kind of to your point, right? Once you have that opportunity, it's like you got to keep the outfit. You got to keep the spot right. And there's always somebody that's trying to take your job. And you know, it was just I think through continuous work ethic and trying to continue to put on weight and strength and just do my job well that ultimately led me to start a school record 52 consecutively started games at that position. Nice which allowed me and because of the success that we've had, we had as a team, you know, Aaron Rodgers was our quarterback March I thought for for other NFL tailbacks. Marshawn Lynch, Justin horse. JJ Eric and so we'll add the PAC 12 PAC 10 at that time in rushing every year, and this is when Reggie Bush was at USC. So that's you know, yeah, pretty good. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:04

I'm sorry to back up. You were doing fullback for Marshawn. Lynch.

Chris Manderino: 11:08

So yeah, yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:10

Do at that point, you just get the hell out of the way in just er was pretty

Chris Manderino: 11:14

much. Yeah, I mean, you guys like audit? Right? And Mark Sean's like, halfway on the other side of the bomb. And you're like, guys, like, you kind of got this internal timer in your head. And like an average play might last like three to five seconds. So with Marshawn you've got to add another two to three seconds away. Guys are still turning Well, yeah, you still have to bring down he's like literally flow rowing, you know, 300 pounds? Off? It's yeah. That's why he's beast mode. Yep. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:47

Sure. Sure. As your you know, so you mentioned earlier, this sort of feathers into sort of, you know, starting the company you have now I mean, you were told hey, go pack on weight, go. Go get bigger, because fullbacks aren't 200 pounds, right there. They're down. It can be clearly also, there's a lot of lower body weight on that one too, I would imagine. Right? So a lot of so as as you started was nutrition, something that was there's a diversity in food and nutrition. Right? You were packing on weight at that point? Was it just, you know, any way you can pack on? Or were you pretty conscious about it's got to be cleaner? It's got to be better? Or was it just pure volume? Yeah, I

Chris Manderino: 12:27

was always conscious about it, you know, I wanted it, I kind of had a general understanding of what you know, clean food was. But the advice that I guess receive, whether it's like the dietician or nutritionist, it wasn't as well integrated back then as I assume it is now in terms of like an a personalized nutrition plan, like that's super dialed into, like every macro and micro and all that stuff, right? So it's kind of like you need to eat more. And, you know, it's kind of up to you to determine how you're getting those calories in because you're burning a whole heck of a lot, basically, through practice and all the training that you're doing. And so, you know, I saw I sought out, you know, clean or leaner protein sources, but didn't have like this, I guess, scientific approach to it. And I think the result of that, you know, when I ultimately got up to 240 plus pounds At my heaviest, and you know, you're guzzling down whey protein shakes, you're just a lot of animal protein, and just like a major heartburn every time I would eat and just like very gaseous and uncomfortable, and you would feel the inflammation in your bones and every joint in your body. And so there was a time was really, later in life after football where I didn't need to be 240 plus pounds anymore to hit linebackers and defensive ends and the face was like, Okay, I gotta get this weight off. How am I going to do that? And I think when I was in Kansas City, I had, you know, Tony Gonzalez was there and really got to see firsthand how he was fueling his body and was very different than like the normal football player at the time. I think he had his own like independent nutritionist or dietician that he was working with and it was a largely plant based diet. I don't know if he went vegan or not. I don't think so. But it was mostly plant centric, and just like super dialed in on the nutrition side, I thought that was fascinating because he you know, Z looks like a Greek god, I mean, warming, you know, at a freakish level at his position. And so I kind of started to take some mental notes and do some additional research but it was really kind of going through that experimentation for my myself and my own body to try to shed a lot of that excess, you know, fat that you accumulate when you're putting on weight to lean out but still kind of maintain the muscle mass and everything else. And it was, you know, a lot of bodybuilding books that I read a lot of just, you know, literature around, you know, nutrition and counting macros. and all that stuff. And then yeah, it was just tons and tons and tons of research. And then I ultimately started working in the field professionally for a bariatric nutrition company. And we actually launched one of the first ketogenic programs on the market. This is like 10 years before the big keto craze became a thing as Surgical Weight Loss doctors were using it as a means for weight loss, medical weight loss, right to accelerate that, and it's kind of the part of the process that patients would have to go through before they even qualify for weight loss surgery. So it was Yeah, just a ton of, I guess, independent researching to start, and then also that that physical transformation that I was trying to achieve as an athlete. Sure.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:49

And then your NFL career. Was it? Did you? Was it your decision to stop or was was it? The league's decision to say we're

Chris Manderino: 16:02

Thank you. Yeah, it's more unfortunately, yeah. So I sat, sat behind a guy in Kansas City is on the practice squad, like worked my tail off, I would actually start all through training camp, which is obviously the most difficult time of the season, he would report to camp basically 300 pounds just out of shape and overweight, so he wouldn't be clear to even step on the practice field. And so there I was doing his job for him. And you know, Georgetown, Kentucky 120 degree he literally running I was, you know, there's times when I was the only fullback in camp. So I was running sideline to sideline, basically doing gassers changing my jerseys in the middle of the scrimmage because I had to take every single fullback or app and right, and those I don't know if you know that. I mean, those are like hour and a half long scrimmages a lot of times in the dog days of summer. And it Yeah, it was just brutal. And so you know, two years of doing that, I felt like I had done everything, you know, I could demonstrate that I wanted to be the guy or at least more involved in in, you know, the system. But as a fullback in the NFL at that time, there just wasn't a whole lot of opportunities, you know, there was the game was changing a whole lot. So it was more spread it out, run into ready throw past yards, and you still see a lot of that now, right instead of running an ISO or something up the middle. And so I think there was maybe, you know, not every team carried a fullback. And the teams that did maybe they carried one on the active roster and then maybe one on the practice squad type thing. So after two years, I declined an offer to extend my contract and Cincinnati I went back into free agency I ended up signing with the Kansas City Chiefs because it seemed like they had kind of gotten rid of they got rid of the fullback that is starting with the year before they had a new OC come in and running backs coach. So it seemed like, you know, everybody was kind of on a equal playing field and there wasn't, you know, somebody who's already on like a, you know, in class contract, which is the guy in Cincinnati, I think he had one of the biggest deals for fullbacks at the time. So I chose that route. And then it kind of battled it out for the starting position there. But a little bit of nepotism worked against me. And I was told to you know, got all the way down to final cuts and thought I hadn't made the roster, I'm out looking at apartments and Kansas City and then get that dreaded phone call and say hey, you know it's on sale, you gotta bring in your playbook. And so you just like, again, you feel just totally drained. You felt like you did everything you had to do to earn a spot. And you know, unfortunately, you know, the business side of things didn't work out. And so, you know, you're driving your car home from Kansas City to California just trying to figure out what's next. Yeah. And I kind of went into it with the mindset of being where I wanted to be you know, and being like the start and the guy within a three to four year timeline or moving on and kind of putting my education to use and moving into the next phase in life and especially at that level. It was such a violent fullback is very violent. You can't really take your body I mean, I remember training camp just like I would step out of bed immediately. My head felt like it was in a vise in every step. I thought there was like another crank on that vise and you know, it's tough way to earn

Tom Regal: 19:26

it but he had a neck injuries for fullbacks is

Chris Manderino: 19:30

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's like okay, maybe there's other into like, if you're not, I guess on roster, right, because it's such a few number of positions available. Season kind of went by had some trials here and there, but, you know, a season passes you by and then it's like, okay, well now we've got a whole new I guess, group of young guys. And so like, what do you you know, you just kind of in that you know, chasing something with without really any true path of it's whether it's going to work out or not. So that was kind of it for me. I remember, you know, studying, take my series seven is going to go the finance route. And then my former college teammate called me up out of the blue, and said, Amen. Do I remember you talking about like going over and playing in Italy, if the NFL thing didn't work it out? I actually, I'm going over there. You know, I guess he had a high school coach, who was the coach for bologna the year before, and they were looking for a few Americans, because each Italian team could bring over two to three Americans to the game, the referee rebellions. And so I said, Screw it, why not? Food? Yeah, it's incredible. You know, it was in a tough spot with, you know, the game and just how it ended. And, you know, it's not on your terms very, very rarely is it right, and just kind of a bitter taste in my mouth. And so, you know, going over there really, you know, allowed me to play for the love of the game again, and really help walk away, you know, on a positive note, and really be appreciative of, you know, all the amazing, you know, memories and friendships and stuff that came from football, as opposed to saying, Oh, well, you know, I could have what what could have been, you know, but certainly it wasn't due to a major injury or anything like that. I mean, so.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:30

Yeah. And yeah, especially at fullback position. It's not a it's not a head injury, right. It's not the point where yeah, you know, you're retired out, you're still your head still ringing? Yeah. You see a lot of, well, obviously, the concussion protocol with a bolasie. That ensued, right? There was just scary stuff. Let's talk about fun stuff. So fast forward, you what was? So you're out of football, I know that transition is probably what am I going to do next? You know, what's going on? How did life fuel become sort of a thing? What, what, what, two questions, I guess, when did nutrition become more important, and then what made you decide that I'm going to take this on my own.

Chris Manderino: 22:11

So I think the nutrition became more important when I was trying to make those physical transformations post, you know, football, I didn't, even though I was performing at a high level, I didn't feel that great. I didn't look the way that I wanted to. So I knew that I needed to transform my body. And it wasn't the exercise, because I kept, you know, working out constantly, I was still obese. But like until I changed my diet and nutrition, that's really when transformation started happening, physically start to lean out, a lot of that fat loss just kind of melted away. And I think that was reaffirmed when I was living abroad in Italy, because I saw, you know how much differently like they lived and how much different like their approach to fueling and food was versus you know, what we've adopted, you know, us where it's just like, you know, we're just so thoughtless of what we're putting in our bodies a lot of time, oh, and it was an even going to like, get produce and stuff, it would last just a few days or maybe a week. Whereas in the US you go to a supermarket and your produce last like a month or two. You're just kind of scratching your head and going, what's going on here and really dive into it. You see, it's because how radically our food system has changed in just the past few decades, right. And so I think it was that of one experimentation going through that for myself, that enlightened men that I had when I was living in Italy and then professionally getting started in the nutraceutical space with this bariatric nutrition company, it all kind of aligned if I did that, on the corporate side, you know, basically started in at the bottom of the totem pole and customer service quickly worked my way out into into a territory manager position when I was traveling, you know, covering six or seven different states really integrated to a lot of these practices and educate both the patients and the physicians about the role and importance of nutrition because in reality, a lot of doctors don't get this knowledge or education about nutrition and medical school. And you know, in most of us don't get that either, right. It's just kind of what we've been told by friends or family or you know, what's been passed down. So I think the approach that they had and the that really the parent company that ultimately buying that business, which was more on the functional side of things are really rooted in science and they approached it like a pharmaceutical company does where they had a full staff of PhDs and I really started with science first and looking to nature to find all these you know, amazing botanical compounds and then using those to kind of address a lot of the chronic lifestyle diseases and ailments that were largely suffering from. And so I was just fascinated by I learned so much during that six years of working at that company, but then started to realize that there was a much bigger audience that could benefit from this inflammation in this way of fueling your body and approach to nutrition. And not necessarily have to go through, you know, a naturopath or, you know, your primary care physician to take control of your own health. And I think that also kind of aligned with kind of the way I was my kind of mental state as an athlete, and just like, hey, like, we, like people should be empowered to kind of do this on our own. And so that's really, you know, it's kind of tossing around this idea around like fuel and saw in that existing patient population, where there was a whole host of micronutrient deficiencies that are very common, and there'll be city an overweight population, but also exists in the general population. So over 95% of Americans don't meet, you know, the bare minimum for one or more key vitamins and minerals in the diet. So I started digging into why that is what's going on. And again, it goes back to how drastically our food system has changed, right, and the Lawson grants in the soil that doesn't get passed and transferred over into the Food Week, and the ultra reliance on ultra processed foods. So it's this whole dynamic that is pretty out of whack. And so I like fuel, we wanted to create, you know, a more efficient way of fueling your body that puts back what's missing from foods. So starting with the science and really dialing in, okay, what are the key micronutrients that we're not getting even on a, quote unquote, healthy diet, that we can get in a clean and convenient fuel source that's, you know, easy to use on the go, which was, you know, important to me as an athlete, but also important, you know, for, you know, people that are in the professional world, or have kids or what have you, right? Fortunately, not changing, and we're not just adopting the Italian way of life overnight where we did, Hey, hang on, it's right. So we're not slowing down? Well, yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:16

and I think so you're tackling you mentioned probably the edge of huge issues when it comes to socio economics on on availability of good food for people, the idea that food is a and in, I've had some background, I used to work at a program with Dr. Dean Ornish, who was looking at nutrition and lifestyle, it's a way to reduce money. But the challenge was also a couple of things. It was around the idea that when people meet at a meal, it's a social event, right? And, and that there's, it's more than just fuel. It's, there's a, there's a factor that's involved. And it's also that that family members, so Person A may want to say no, I need to eat a cleaner diet, but again, sort of like drugs, right? They're surrounded by a bunch of people that are eating a bunch of McDonald's and a bunch of stuff like, hey, that's great. You want to do that. Make sure you fry me up a burger tonight, right? If there's a and when when you get around for a meal becomes a social event, especially obviously, you know, in Italy, it's probably more of a social event, or, you know, it's and so the combination of those things can be really difficult when you're starting a company to say, Hey, this is going to help you get those vital nutrients back. When so when you started life, you will what was kind of you had to go after a first sort of order and market was there a particular to set it to your point, former athletes or people that are looking to be better? How did you? How did you start pinpointing those? It seems to me that there would be a you get the easy ones. First, you're going to get a majority other people then you got the laggards behind kind of deal? Is that kind of how you approached it? Or how did you start sort of gaining traction? Yeah, I

Unknown: 28:58

guess that's the in marketing sense. That's how you're supposed to do a customer.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 29:07

You got a persona there, you

Chris Manderino: 29:08

go up with the facade. And we did some of that, but it wasn't, you know, super specific in that regard. Because at the end of the day, when you get down to the science, all humans need this, you know, exactly. All Humans need optimal nutrition. So you can't say okay, this is only for athletes is only for professionals. This is only for you know, soccer moms, like anybody who's not got their nutrition, if they're not taking it seriously, something's gonna give, right? It's just pure biochemistry, physics, you know, it just, that's that's what happens. And so what really was compelling to me was Dr. Bruce Ames nutritional triage theory of aging. And that posits when you don't get the essential nutrients that your body needs on a daily basis, you flip a switch from long term health to short term survival, and how that manifests. could be different depending on epigenetics, right and different things. For one person, it could be obesity, for somebody else, it could be, you know, an automated autoimmune disorder or something else, right. But you can kind of turn off and turn off certain gene expressions based off lifestyle factors in the way that you're feeling your body. And you know, there's a ton of research around like what's going on in the plant based world and stuff that I was able to learn, firsthand going through a Cornell and Dr. Campbell's course there. And really, it all boiled down to the science, right? When you look at the science, you know, there's a very compelling argument to, you know, get the essential nutrients that are largely missing from diets back in back in your body, and to find more efficient, cleaner fuel sources. So instead of like whey protein, we use, you know, Plant, plant based protein. And, you know, it's all getting those antioxidants, that phytonutrients, the fiber, all these things that we've been, you know, we've evolved to eat as humans that we've largely discarded in modern diets. So,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:14

and pragmatically speaking, then what what is what is life you will offer? Is it A, one of the products that that I could purchase through sort of through your program?

Chris Manderino: 31:25

Yeah, so it's a pretty simple product line, because it boils down to essential nutrition. And so instead of, you know, taking a reductionist approach to nutrition, and like a conventional supplement company that's got a different vitamin or mineral from literally everything A to Z, or a multivitamin, that's just kind of like, random stuff. So we could essentially shape what do we want to do is basically replicate what you should get in a whole food plant based meal, but in a more convenient form, right. And a lot of people will seek out that products to either give them the nutritional insurance they need, and the peace of mind that they are getting all those basic nutritional fundamentals. A lot of people do use it for weight loss, right to reduce the calories that they're consuming. A lot of people use it for just an energizing healthy breakfast that you know, gets them moving and out the door. So it's got a lot of different use cases. But the most important thing is again, it's kind of laying that complete nutritional foundation so that if you do want some additional supplements or something, it's more of a boost, right, and it's more personalized, as opposed to just randomly, you know, popping a bunch of pills and stuff. So that's really our hero product, it's really, you know, the core of our business. And in addition, we've got our transformation program, which is an educational program that really helps to kind of move people away from a standard American diet to adopting a more holistic approach to wellness that's rooted in a low inflammatory, whole food plant based diet. But I think it's important to note that, you know, we're not about like any one dietary, you know, theory, right? It's not about just being keto, it's not about going vegan, it's not about you know, any of that stuff, because there's no, the perfect diet doesn't exist. Okay, so it's like, what is right for you based off your personal wellness goals based on your socio economic situation, based off genetics based off microbiome right there. So like, very complex very quickly. And so what we try to do is boil it back down to a core set of principles that when applied, are going to benefit pretty much you can't deny the benefits of a largely plant centered diet and fueling your body with more phytonutrients antioxidants, and all these, you know, things that it takes to optimize wellness.

Tom Regal: 33:51

You know, I've always been pretty amazed that anytime we go out to eat with friends or whatever, we got even a nicer restaurants type of thing. So I always like to point out to everybody that there's no vegetables on anywhere on these plates, right? And the one person that did order it got the three pieces of asparagus I'm going to and that's nowhere near which No, it's just, once you start noticing little things like that. Every time you go to eat, you go to something else, and you're just kind of like, okay, you know, and it's not, like you say it's not one size fits all. It's not, it's not perfect. And it's not like you have to go completely vegan, although it works for some people. You just need to add more vegetables. And so if you're still hungry, eat some more vegetables, just add that part of it. So when when so you came out, you launched this product and when 2016 through 2016. So were you kind of at the forefront of this because I'm starting to see other companies. Yeah, we were somewhere things so it seems like you were way ahead of everybody.

Chris Manderino: 34:47

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there was a maybe a couple companies on the market like Vega and was the other one Garden of Life. But you know, my challenge was that going through this transition You know, I tried a lot of those products, they taste like dirt. So they're like, No, I'm not gonna do this on a daily basis. And mostly, though it's kind of balance, right? People want desire, right, you want something to taste good, you want something that, you know, you're excited, and enjoy, you know, and like the green shakes and all that stuff, it's just like, not very enjoyable. So we're trying to balance art and science, and it took us two years, just come out with our initial, you know, formulation, and bring that to market, I've been working on a new formulation for just as long, you know, for the past three years now. And it's very excited to get out to market because a lot of new innovation that's happened in this space, and really using a lot of the customer feedback that we've received the past six years of doing this to upgrade, and really, you know, continue to push that that edge further, right, because now what you've happened, you know, this plant based craze has really taken off. And that was kind of our prediction that, you know, more people would start to, you know, recognize the benefits of being PLANT BASE, also thought that more people would, you know, start purchasing stuff online and E commerce is going to take, so there's a few kind of underlying trends that we kind of shaped the business around. But now that it's kind of diluted, you know, I guess, the, you know, what plant based it right, because now everything's plant based, or everything's got all these buzzwords, right. So it's, you know, it's, it's challenging for the customer at the end of the day to sort through all that noise and really understand, you know, what they're getting in a product. And I think it's good that there's more, you know, options available, obviously, but you really need to, you know, be informed and educated and most of us just candidly, don't ever get that education. So you almost need a PhD. A lot of times for nutrition on the table. Oh, yeah. Or through what's on the front of the packaging to get down to like, what am I actually getting through these these products or, you know, a lot of times packaged food and stuff. So yeah, it's, it's been an interesting space, it's definitely been space, it's been growing a ton, especially in the past couple years alone.

Tom Regal: 37:19

Yeah, you know, just trying to get through the just trying to get through the reading of labels of like, you're fighting the sugar thing, right? So so vegetables don't taste as good when you've got that sugar base, you get the sugar out of your system, and then all of a sudden, the vegetables taste better. But you can't get somebody over that 234 week mode to get into that mode. And then you find out that on the labels, they start changing what the name of sugar is, right. So there's other things in there and they just changed the name. So it doesn't say sugar anymore, but it has these other things that are kind of buried in there and you don't realize it. But once you start once again, once you start looking at all the things that have sugar in it, I'm to a point where I still, I still have a sugar. Like I have a sweet tooth. I try to I try to fight it off, but it's still there sometimes, but I can still like get a burger someplace and I go, Oh, they put sugar in the bone. It has no value, but there's lots of sugar in it. Gosh, this bun tastes great. You know, but it's, it's, it's just this battle that we have. i It's crazy.

Chris Manderino: 38:16

Yeah, yeah, I think that is one thing that you know, that's why we have the transformation program, right and trying to get people to experience that over, you know, three to four week period and cut out sugar, you know, you're reducing your, you know, cutting out the ultra processed foods and stuff. And, you know, once you do, you're kind of retraining your taste buds. And now even with our products, you know, there's, we use a touch of coconut sugar, a little bit of stevia we're doing away with stevia and transitioning to monkfruit. But like, people have kind of have retrain their taste buds. They're like, Oh my gosh, that's too. It's too sweet, right. And so it's really getting back to a level of just like those truly natural components. So the cacao should taste like Cal and maybe there's just like a subtle taste of sweetener, but it doesn't take me to taste like a Wendy's milkshake or something. Yeah, I don't enjoy that once they've kind of gone through that transition. Yeah, the sugars.

Tom Regal: 39:16

Not terrible, but it's just, you know, the doses too much. I it's just too much of it. I mean, we're endurance athletes, we need sugar for our races, we need sugar to push the distances and stuff. But yeah, so

Kenny Bailey<br>: 39:28

but taste is a big deal. I mean, you know, we like it, you know, at our shopping make a lot of smoothies and we've had more than enough protein manufacturers that come to us and say, Hey, you got to try this. You got to do this. And, and they're clean, right? And they look great, and the ingredients are great. And at the end of the day, they just they don't you know, pea protein that has you know, p protein is not going simply, you know we're trying to get people to have protein beiges smoothies and put real ingredients cinnamon but at the end of the day, taste is Taste is king. And I know you need to kind of modify that to a certain extent. But to your point on that two years sort of window, how much is that really around trying to nail that sort of taste? And if you have dragon fruit, I'm going to kill you. So I don't know what that is. Is, is a I think it's a catch all for I don't know what to call this flavor, so we're dead. But is it is it uh, is that I mean, how much of that two year window when you're doing it is around just making sure it's got a texture and a taste? I know. Like, for example, the plant based burger industry Impossible Burger was one that finally nailed it when it came to sort of the sizzle. I mean, isn't it funny how we try to make a plant taste like a piece of meat to get the right plant? But hey, we do it. We do? Yeah. What was it? What's that process? Like?

Chris Manderino: 40:47

It's, it's a long process, right? Because we have something we've got a benchmark, right. And generally people do like what we have now, obviously, you know, we wouldn't be in six years later if they didn't, right. And so a lot of people like that. So it's going through, how do we use that but improve massively upon, and we don't want to just only improve the taste, but we want to improve everything in the product. Right. So our goal and our unique approach is around 100% food based nutrition, right. So getting away from anything synthetic, like vitamins and minerals that are chemically constructed in a lab, which is, you know, candidly, 99% of the, you know, supplemented nutrition industry is reliant on synthetic vitamins and minerals. And so really want to lead this next wave of innovation, which is around food base nutrition. So that, fortunately, there's been a ton of innovation that allows us to do that. Secondly, you know, we don't want to just kind of, you know, say, Oh, we've got clean ingredients, we want them to be equivalent from a science standpoint to what you would get in like an animal based protein, right. So using the correct combinations of proteins. We're currently using pea and rice but now moving forward, there's a cleaner, better tasting protein source that we plan to use with the the pee that complements from amino acid profiles standpoint. So again, that full PT cast score that you would in a whey protein. And then you've got everything kind of dialed in on paper, you're like, Okay, this looks freakin awesome. Like, now it's gonna blow people's minds. And now you go into like, the art right? And trying to make it actually tastes great. And there's, you know, different levers, right? You're like, Okay, do we push up the cacao? Do we probably, you know, bring down the the monk fruit a bit, you know? And like, what are the inputs that are contributing to that, you know, sensory in profile and taste profile to really nail that, but I did get, you know, preliminary samples just a couple of weeks ago, it is phenomenal. I'm very like, crushes, what we have now from like, both a nutrient standpoint, taste standpoint, mix ability, and point across the board. Now we got to figure out the cost side of things and how this was gonna fly, actually, How was everything going, you know, to the maroon in terms of commodity prices and stuff, you know, that's where there's just so much that goes on behind the scenes that you're trying to balance and manage, and also kind of appeal to what people are willing to pay for. Because the other challenge is, when everything looks okay, well, this is plant based, and this is plant based, you know, it's tough to break through all that noise. And so that's why, you know, we feel we have the most comprehensive products hands down on the market, now, it's just a matter of dialing in to taste and making sure it's still reasonable price point. So that you're getting fair value for for your money.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 43:52

Yeah, I think that's, that's one of the thing and there's a pyramid, right, there's the small number of people, the very top can afford whatever, right. And then there's sort of a mass group of people that unfortunately, probably needed the most because, again, when you look at sort of Blue Zones, use a great example, Blue Zones, it's great in Italy, it's great. And in other areas where there's fish available, and there's fruit in Cleveland, where the only thing within a three mile radius is a Popeye McDonald's, you know, right? You know, those are, those are difficult things to do. So when you look at the, I know, you're looking at price from, you know what, it's more than just cost plus it's going to be value and it's going to be those other things, but when you look at price, do you feel a bit of pressure, like if I were able to reduce a little bit more, I can get a wider number of people. And then on the opposite end, have you thought about like creating a halo product like if money be damned? You know, what would that thing you know, with? I don't know if you guys play in that territory at all. It's sort of like but how you know when it comes to pricing, you look at the competition, you look at your own you look at kind of your margins, you look at all that sort of stuff, but do you feel some bit of pressure to also make it affordable to as many people as pragmatic, would that be the best

Chris Manderino: 45:05

way to say it? Yeah, I mean, I think over time, we'll we'll get there, right with economies of scale, right cost of goods and all that stuff comes down, right? So we don't want to do is we don't want to, I guess dilute the comprehensiveness of our shakes. And now a piece that you Okay, well, here's your protein, and we can sell like, honestly, if you're buying protein, you're wasting your money in the first place, right, because you can just go directly to, you know, sprouts, or, you know, I'll put you in touch with a dozen manufacturers that'll sell you straight protein, right, don't pay a 70% markup to have some brand, put their name on a bottle and buy protein, it's a waste of money, what we're doing is completely different. And there's no fragrance product on the market that's close in terms of what you're getting, you'd have to like, put a multivitamin and a greens and berries and protein and all that stuff. So it's really a value based approach. Um, and so part of it is getting people to understand recognize and appreciate, you know, what that's worth, right. So if somebody's willing to go spend $5, or $6, or $10 on a Starbucks coffee, okay, are our products should be worth 20 to$20 a serving. And now, that's doing nothing for you from a nutrition standpoint, is giving a third boost of energy. And really, you should be spending way less than that to just have an espresso without all that sugar and crap in it. Right? So it's, I think it's, you know, we're trying to do something bigger, we're trying to change this conversation around the way people feel their bodies, what they prioritize and what they appreciate. And that's, you know, it's not an easy road. But I think where we're at now, you know, focused on growing the business sustainably, we've focused on, you know, this concept of essential nutrition. And now we're looking at okay, well, are there other ways to get those essential nutrients in so we're launching some bars here and elements, so they have that micronutrient panel, but maybe that's kind of an entry way where fans, you know, two, three bucks on a bar is kind of recognize and start to learn the story of what we're going to like fuel, or maybe that's, you know, a starter kit, right, where we've got, you know, a sample pack of, you know, a few of our flavors, a few of the bars, and now it's lowering that barrier to entry. And so I see that as a better way to bring people into the funnel, as opposed to saying, Okay, well, let's look at what all these other nutrition companies are doing, because I don't think they're doing a very good job and are doing a disservice to, because it's confusing. There's way too many products out there. And it's just, it's not convenient. And candidly, we don't need a lot of it. Even though we've been convinced we do.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 47:51

Was there a temptation, given your ties to the NFL and ties to certain players to just create sort of a premium? Was that something in your early stage where you had to make a conscious effort say, Wait, I got all these people I know, if I make this, I could, you know, sell this at a premium sell it to people that that, you know, have nice fat contracts and be able to really keep them because obviously, there's a pretty good market to keep those professional athletes, not just the NFL, but across those professional Was that was that, uh, when you started this business was a conscious effort to go, No, I'm going to try to get this to as many people as possible or, or was that kind of crossed your mind?

Chris Manderino: 48:28

You know, I think you you always have to entertain those ideas. It's not the direct market that we tried to serve. However, like our recovery shake, for instance, is something that I would have loved to enjoy when I was still, you know, playing football, right? Because it was beyond just protein, it's giving me those phytonutrients it's given me my vitamin D, magnesium, zinc V, B vitamins, a lot of those, you know, micronutrients that get depleted as an athlete, you know, so I think there's always been that there in the back of mind, we'd love to kind of approach that later time. But it's not the primary market that we're serving. And I think that was really due to what I had seen on the bariatric nutrition side and going around the country and counseling you know, patients who were really struggling with nutrition and were had to take basically five or six different products a day just to know kind of what you could do with our essential shake now, right and in because compliance, it was so poor, as a result of having it you know, figure out when to take your bite your iron and your calcium, you can't take them together and then I had to get my protein and it's very challenging and confusing. And so when I was actually there, we were trying to push upper management to do something like we ultimately did like fuel to make a more consolidated comprehensive product. And, you know, we could have maybe focused on that market to start which was the the weight loss surgery market but kind of wanted to focus on a broader market realize that okay, well, there's so many more people that can benefit from and really do need this. And so that was kind of the the impetus that we focused on that to start.

Tom Regal: 50:08

So is, is Lyfe Fuel considered a supplement then as when you get in the market is as a supplement or is it part of food regulated by FDA?

Chris Manderino: 50:19

Or? Yeah, so depends on the product. So our bars will be a food based product so it has a nutrition label and the the shakes currently, those are a supplement product but I think if we were do it in a ready to drink, those would be a food based product, right?

Tom Regal: 50:35

So just refusing to go a bit crazy. But yeah, we

Chris Manderino: 50:39

really design them to be equivalent to food at the end of the day, but just like the regulatory body that controls it differs based off you know, how they, I guess, look at it and define. So,

Tom Regal: 50:52

so, so is that, um, I know there's the NS NSF safe for sport type of thing, is that something that your, your product has, or I know, that's ridiculously expensive. But as I work with USA Triathlon, I just got out of a conference, one of the things we're talking about is the supplementation and of course, the you SATA and water, anti doping stuff, and I just really, really concerned about the amount of on regulation in the supplement industry, how to how to athletes approach yours.

Chris Manderino: 51:28

Yeah, I mean, for us, like, especially with the new form, if you look at the label, and it's like, you know, it's like apple and orange, and you know, so it's like, a lot easier to decipher, that's definitely something that we'll layer on. But to your point. It is quite expensive. However, we're trying to get through this reformulation first because it doesn't make sense to pay for now when we're going to change that. So once we have the new formulation, we'll go through the process of getting all those you know, credentials, because I think that is what will open up that athletic market further for us. And it was a conversation, we've kind of planted some seeds with, you know, obviously people within our closed network, but we've got to obviously get the products ready to go prior to pursuing that further. Okay, cool. Yeah. Should be should be a simple thing, obviously, for us, because there's nothing, you know, seems like it'd be a slam dunk.

Tom Regal: 52:20

I mean, it's just a matter of cost. And that, you know,

Chris Manderino: 52:23

this, what are you willing to pay? And all that?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 52:25

Yeah. What's our return on that? Yeah, yeah. Is there a? Two questions? So is there a surprising group of people that you didn't expect to use your product? And on the opposite end? What are sort of the what are the three or four things you always hear on? Why it's not going to work? Or why I just decided not to do that. So let's start with the first one first, is

Chris Manderino: 52:50

there Yeah. Then, yeah, first question. Definitely. So is actually the more elderly population. So you know, 6570, you know, my parents, right? They have come to rely on it. And, you know, they get pissed off at me, because we've had so many challenges with, like, out of stock stuff. And so they're like, you can't get people, you know, rely on this stuff, and then run out. And you we heard that those people like, literally lay into us, and they're ripe for doing it. And it's cool to see that they have made it part of their daily habit, because that was really the intention behind the product, right? The daily nutrition shakes. And so but it was surprising to see how many of those people are, you know, coming to life fuel and seeking this out? The weight loss thing, we kind of expected to some degree, right? I think, you know, kind of all nutrition companies get that, but it was really that elderly demographic, where, you know, if you really think about it makes sense, right? Because they probably don't want to eat 234 cold meals a day. So having something in liquid form is a lot easier for them. And, you know, most of them have to you know, they're now being told by their doctor that you need B 12 and d3, and, you know, all these vitamins, so it makes things super simple. For them. So and yeah, I mean, there's some, I think, our most loyal customers because they you know, working and they they just stick with it. I've had very long conversations with a lot you know, because it's just the way you know, we're based business but they want to, you know, get on the phone and talk to somebody and it's, it's awesome. I

Kenny Bailey<br>: 54:35

still drink it at four o'clock in the afternoon. I mean, it's a special like, yeah,

Chris Manderino: 54:44

we've also gained some, like, very interesting insights, you know, from how absolutely, yeah, yeah, it's, it's been good. So the second question,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 54:53

yeah, I was just around like, you know, when you like, you know, I'm going to use my valley girl kind of like, oh, like, I don't know if I want to drink Food? Or I mean, what are those kind of pushback that you tend tend to have to overcome?

Chris Manderino: 55:05

Yeah, I mean, I think you're always gonna have those, I guess, idealists or, you know, the people that are going to look into every single like last, you know, piece of information and find some reason why it's not perfect. And, and, you know, that's, that's fine, right, because we also learn from that and have to kind of weigh that, like, if it becomes a big thing, you know, then it's something that we obviously need to use and innovate, because there is enough, you know, pull for that. But I think, you know, people get obsessed sometimes in some little, you know, part of it, whether it's, you know, diet, nutrition, and then kind of forget about everything else, right. And when we think about wellness, it's not just one of these. So my shake, and like those not going to solve all the world's problems and all your health problems and concerns, right? It's one tool, one tool in your tool belt, to live a healthy lifestyle for as long as you can, right? The same way that you can't ignore daily movement, or, you know, training your brains or meditation or whatever your mindfulness practices, you can't completely ignore any one of these things, expect yourself to look feeling perform your best for as long as possible, you just cannot be done, you're leaving something on the table at the end of the day. And so we feel like we've made amazing products. You know, based off what we've seen in the marketplace, we'll continue to innovate and improve upon it. And we welcome all criticism, only help us get better. But I do think people obsess sometimes over details that, you know, maybe they haven't seen the entire, you know, both sides of the argument or actually read the white papers about

Tom Regal: 56:54

people don't read.....

Chris Manderino: 56:58

it's so easy to take some of this because there's so many you know, health coaches and different people on the internet and they'll just take like one little piece and blow it up into this huge thing. And ignore, like so much of the bigger picture that matters, you know, infinitely more than obsessing over one little micro detail. So to

Kenny Bailey<br>: 57:19

summarize, I can't use your dream to help me deal with the issues my parents told me how to eat everything off the plate before I can leave the table. Well, you're not gonna do that. So there's a major problem information program might help you like deeply rooted behavioral and psychographic. Thanks, Mom. For that trauma, yeah. What do you got coming up Chris? what's other than a new product coming out? Anything else? That's

Chris Manderino: 57:52

exciting. Yeah, so I think dovetailing with this new product, it's a brand refresh across the board. So the introduction of what we're dubbing is life fuel 2.0 Right. And so that's really doubling down on our core values of quality, efficacy and sustainability really leading this movement into the next phase of nutrition, which is food base nutrition, really kind of being polarizing against the larger supplement industry and saying, Hey, there's a better way to feel your body. And that's been something that we've been working on for quite some time. And I think that will be our first step to you know, a much larger initiative hopefully downstream which is the personalization of nutrition and we've got is yeah, really really exciting but that's obviously a lot of work and there's a lot of you know interesting companies that are trying to figure that part out but I think like fuel will have some role one one way shape or form in that conversation in the future

Tom Regal: 58:53

sweet so and purchasing is online where

Chris Manderino: 58:57

everything's directly through our website life fuel calm that's life with a y a y FVFQ el calm Yeah, we've got like this subscription program because it is intended to be a daily routine. And so there's like the best cost savings and all that are directly through our website we do sell on Amazon but the best experience and you know, best values always direct to our website

Tom Regal: 59:22

Yeah, I did check out the website it's very very thorough. So my show

Chris Manderino: 59:26

we tried to go deeper into you know, the topics and the products and really give the customer everything that they would need to make you know, a proper decision about whether it's for them or not and then you know, even we have like a zero risk you know, offer you can buy it if you hate it, no big deal. We'll give you your money back all good. Move on. Try something else. It's all good.

Tom Regal: 59:54

Well, it's been fantastic. Chris, thank you so much for coming on and talk. It's great to get to know you and and to get to know more about the product. I mean, that's, that's pretty cool. So we're super excited to have you. So thank you. Thank you, Scott. Thank

Chris Manderino: 1:00:09

you guys. Thanks for having me and gonna have to come check out the recovery center. When I pass through. Yeah, it

Tom Regal: 1:00:14

comes through Nashville and checkout say hi to Kenny at the Recovery Lounge.

Chris Manderino: 1:00:18

all my friends from California left California are all living in Nashville now. So

Tom Regal: 1:00:24

yeah. Yeah, everybody's awake. So yeah. I came from New York, through California to Tennessee. So I like to I like to point that out. So it's all good. So and this is my my tagline. So thanks, everybody, for listening. We really appreciate all the comments and questions and things that come through. So give us five stars, thumbs up, whatever it is, that helps the algorithms and more and more people can actually get this information out. So thank you, everybody. Thanks, Chris. Next, Kenny, and we'll catch on the next