0:00 [Music] What's up everybody? We're back here again on an episode of Careful Boys with Mr. Max Tuning. Yeah, modern Willy Wonka. Modern Willie. Oompa Loompa. Um, I'll totally be a Oompa Loompa. We got a chance to talk about a lot of the uh, you know, multi-millionaire splurges that you might have wanted to embark on. Um, but they all seem very wholesome and very very like it seems like you're also surrounded by very very wholesome people. But just out of curiosity, when you suddenly come into a large sum of money, like does anybody start treating you different? Does anybody start coming out the woodwork and being like, "Hey buddy, remember that 500 bucks I loaned you, come back with interest?"
0:50 Uh, no. Cuz I mean my circle is so small and like everyone around me is like just crushing it and winning as as well. I mean, I I I had a lot of people just like congratulate me um like when when it happened and it's kind of like what the what the heck. Um but no, nothing nothing weird. I guess no one's like, "I got this great business idea. You're going to love it." No, I guess the the only thing is like maybe you start getting like some jokey comments about like uh if you say something, it's like, "Well, we we know you can afford it." Like like so it's it was like dad jokes I guess kind of lame. It's one of those ones like I he's not going to have a problem. I don't think they mean anything by it. Bills on him but they'll definitely do some stuff. Bills on him. That one's good. Yeah, he's covering our dinner. So I I I um I know your circle
1:41 and like you know like you, Shi, Christian, all those guys like all of you guys are crushing it and they all have like big visions of their own. I almost feel like what might be tough is because everyone's building their own vision, you guys don't hang out as much. Yeah. Um, is that a part of I guess maybe your future plan that since you're you have less responsibility, you would try to bring the group back together or is it you just feel like as you get later like more on in life, everyone just has more responsibility and it's harder? Yeah. I mean, I think it it it definitely is like that. Um, in terms of it's not as much of like, oh, let's all go to dinner tonight. It's like, I got this, I got this, I got this. So, um, I think I think the friends that are very uh intentional with trying to make time to like spend time with the people that
2:31 are like close to them, like it it works out as it should. And the people that maybe don't prioritize um spending time with you is like you're not as you know I don't want to say important but like it's like the other priorities that they're doing or maybe take a precedent um over over kind of like leisure time with friends but I still see Christian Joe like on a regular basis and um and I I think that I think you get a certain age in life and you start understanding that it's like this is just what like naturally happens is people get busy especially with businesses and scaling and just cuz I still have the company I still again I'm still at the unless I'm you know traveling or filming or something I'm at the office doing the same thing so everyone has like responsibilities at work and now everyone's either you know trying to get pregnant or you know
3:21 starting to have kids getting married so um if anything I think the circles are getting smaller and then more intentional with spending quality time with each other and when we do hang out it's very intentional what we're doing it's All right. Like like we're not maybe you're not filming on this one. Like let's just let's just spend time together and um have a good time. So it's uh Do you work with your friends too or are they just strictly like friends and you guys you have no projects with them? No, I was pretty intentional early on to not get into business with any of my friends. Like um even even being like a an athlete or I was never like an athlete or affiliate for like Alphalite for example is um I don't like to like muddy the water and even with partnerships I've I have personally seen so many like partnerships between best buds who start a business together where it just like you know crashes and burns. I I think
4:12 partnerships are really in interesting um dynamic that it's a it takes a specific group of people to like for it to really really work. Um especially if it's like if a business really starts scaling and you have multiple people in it because some people are going to take it more seriously than others. Some people are going to have um you know maybe start getting resentful of like man I know I'm putting in all this work but they're not pulling their weight here. So everyone needs to be on the same path and it's like sometimes rare that multiple people can have the exact same vision and especially as it continues to grow and if there's like a dip at any point in a business or um something you're doing together a project one person is like would rather put their focus on something else because that's what's either working or making the money and it it I've seen a lot of friendships end and like get torn apart because of uh partnerships and
5:04 it's like really sad to see honestly. So, I I don't know if this is like enlightened of me to say, but I I value my friendships way more than the business itself. So, I'd rather us just keep them separate, even if there's like a great opportunity, because I'm like, it's not worth me screwing up my friendship with you, like in the long run for this. And it's it's easy in the beginning to be like, "No, we'll never do that." Like, we'll we'll do all, you know, we'll be fine. Um, but I've seen it happen. Like I've seen it happen multiple times with super close people I'm friends with where sometimes it just fizzles out and there's big arguments and they be stop becoming best friends. And I've seen some that like they just like end up hating each other and like you know completely being against each other. So I don't want to be in that scenario. I'm like I'd rather when we hang out as friends, we're hanging out as friends and we can help each other do projects and I'll help support your business and help you, you know, do these photo shoots and promote your your
5:54 stuff, but um I don't need to be like tied in with you. Um, that's just my opinion cuz I've seen it happen. Wouldn't you see it happen like while you were on YouTube and growing? Yeah. I mean, whether it be like YouTube, people have started like YouTube channels together, whether it be starting like actual physical product businesses together. Um, I've seen people that like started gyms together and and I can understand why it happens. It's, you know, when I, you know, started Sour Strips, for example, like I'm like laser focused into it. But like, what if the other person just isn't as laser focused as you and the business starts scaling and you like it'd be great if you're like, "Here's the responsibilities we both have. Here's how much time we're both going to put into it. As it scales, we adjust and have, you know, mature conversations." But like, humans are, you know, inherently just different and they don't think the same way. And I think if you have two
6:44 different people, like it's it'd be rare that you have the exact same vision and stay on that exact same path 100% of the time. And it may be fine for first 6 months, first year, first two years, but like it's not worth me to gamble what the future could hold if it's going to ruin my friendship with that person cuz I care more about the friendship with that person than how great this business is going to go. And I'd rather sacrifice. I'm more like, "Bro, this may be a sick idea, but like you should do it with someone else and I'll just be your bud and I'll help you and do everything." And um yeah, I've I've seen it just I've seen it too many times. Earlier you made a um you were talking about how you almost had the real estate business partners, right? Um did you experience that there or was it like everyone was green and you guys are like this is dope. We're learning it together. Yeah, that that one it was
7:34 more of like we all were I just was like I got this goofy idea they were like yeah we'll figure it out kind of too and then we'll just like we never we never even got very far like we never there was never an agreement there was never anything. It was just like yeah we'll email with some people but like we never made any traction at all. Um, and that's why I kind of gave up. And then again, they had their businesses that they were doing that they were really focused on. So, they weren't as, you know, if someone didn't get back to us, they were just like, "Okay, like, Max, let us know what you wanted to do." It wasn't like, "Okay, we're going to sit down all day. We're going to keep trying, keep trying, keep trying." It was just kind of like this passive thing. It was It was more of like a a floating idea that like maybe could have turned into something. it uh it never was a it never amounted like to anything like real and then
8:24 there was never a like all right guys we're parting ways it was just like all right like we just stopped the communication of it and then like six seven months down the road I was like I think I can figure this out and I'm going to try it like on my own and then and that was like when I found the manufacturer and then uh I remember sitting in like the the office at a little bit after I moved to Texas and I was I I like I found the manu facturer. I was like, "Oh, now I need to come up with a name." And I was like, "Man, you know, like what what's like a cool name I can think of for this candy." And then I was like, "They're there these like sour strip types of candy." And I was like, "That is like a generic name." But I was like, "What if you what if you took this generic name and made it like the brand, right, itself?" It's kind of like if you get uh store brand cereal and you go in and you can see, you know, the store brand
9:14 version and the real version is the same name, right? because like it's a generic description. But if if you were like, "Hey, pick up Frosted Flakes like and and you came back with like, you know, random ass brand," you'd be like, "No, I I wanted Frosted, not this." Like, "I wanted Frosted Flakes." Right. Um I That was like kind of like my idea with Sour Strips. I was like, "I want people to be like, I I don't I didn't want Sour Strips. I wanted Sour Strips as simple as possible." Yeah. Exactly. And then I went on Instagram and Sour Strips was available and then sour strips.com was available. It was available. Wow. Wow. I was like, a bunch of idiots never took this. I was surprised that the uh trademark was available for such a generic name. So, we we trademarked uh we trademarked it's kind of like how you can create like Kelloggs has frosted flakes but other but like Kroger can have Frosted Flakes, right? It's because the trademark is the trademark uh
10:07 department whatever basically has established that like frosted flakes is a descriptive term of what the product is. They're frosted flakes, right? So they can't coin the name Frosted Flakes, but what they can coin is the way that Frosted Flakes, the wording, the font, the style it presented, right? So other companies can call them Frosted Flakes, but they can't make it look. They can't basically try to deceive the customer to make you think that it's that Frosted Flakes. So So you're trademarking the like design elements of the phrase because it's a generic thing. You have to use a zebra instead of a tiger or something. Exactly. I mean, it literally is that like you you can't like orange zebra. Yeah. The way that trademarks work is it's more of like good does the average person who looks at your product like do they confuse it with this other product and if the average person can get confused that's when like infringement happens right um if it's a
10:58 generic type of like type of thing or they're trying to make it look like it. So with sour strips I was like you know there's it's kind of like everyone does you know something something gummy bears but it' be like what if you made a brand that was like we're gummy bears. I don't know that one maybe doesn't work as well, but that was like my idea with sour strips and it was like a really effective idea because there's a lot of companies out now that have started making sour candy and they're calling them sour strips and like it it a it ain't no coincidence. Like it isn't it? Not only is it not a coincidence that they're going with this type of candy and it's not this type of coincidence that they're calling them sour strips and because they're like but they're sour belts and everyone's been calling them sour belts for decades but I start calling them sour strips become popular and they start you know you shifted the language. Yeah. So it's like soda pop coke all that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Grab
11:48 grab a Coke. you know, is there um something that like I guess like you know like there's all these like business and entrepreneur gurus these days. Is there any like I'm one now. Yeah. So you're so you're one now. Um but you actually have like the the resume for it. Some of them we don't know where the hell they came from. But like do you have any mythbuster type insights? Like you know like sometimes people like oh business got to be like this. and you're like, "Dude, this does doesn't have to be like that." Or any insights that you have that's unique to your own experience. I would say all like all of them, man. Like I think if you just look at even the way that I talk about business and like my my journey and then you look at like an actual like if you look at like a Alexi or a Grant Cardone and you listen to how they talk about
12:39 business, you listen to me like successful in our own own respects. You know them a lot a lot more. Like, but like the way I talk about it, you're like, "This is clearly a dude who like just kind of figured it out as he went. I don't know the terminology." Um, and so I I I think a lot of people get the like the the paralysis by analysis where they they think they need to become experts in the field versus I was just I got an idea. I don't know what it takes to scale this, but I'm just going to figure it out along the way, you know? And then again, like I when I started the the company, I reached out to um a colleague of mine that like was in in the space. He's a business partner kind of behind the scenes with a bunch of um with a bunch of really big brands. And I was kind of like thinking of this idea of this this this candy. And he's like he's like, "Okay." He's like, "Distributors need this margin, so you
13:29 need to make the candy at this price because retailers need it at this price or you're never going to succeed." I'm like, "Bro, I I can't sell it at that price." He's like, "It's not like they won't take it at this. you have to like you have to sell it at this lower price because they need this margin. And I was like, well, I'm going to try it anyway. Like I'm going to try to not do that, right? And I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking there's only like one way to do something. And um it's like the market decides what works, right? And you just got to like put yourself out there and figure it out along the way. Because look at my YouTube videos, man. Like I'm not like a a face. I'm not I've always said this like I'm not the face of Sour Strips and there's someone running the business behind like I like I have managed the finances of Sour Strips from inception. I have like done all of like the the the super deep behind the scene every decision of what everything that comes out of the brand
14:19 and like why we do things is because uh like I have been like this is what what I want to do. Right. So there's not some mastermind telling me what to do. You're not just doing the fun stuff. Yeah. Exactly. And I think you look at my content like you can tell that like I'm just a dude who like likes this industry is a goofy guy and is like figuring it out as he goes. And I'm I'm not like super like analytical professional very specific with my terminology. And I think people think that you have to be this like guru person to uh maybe have this level of success. And like I just think that's like not not necessarily the case. And you can also go against the grain. Even even with sour strips, we carved out a um like a whole premium category. If you look at a three, ours is like 3.4 ounces of candy, right? But if so, that's like about three servings, that's pretty standard on like a smaller bag type of candy. But if you go grab a any name brand gummy worm or whatever,
15:12 for the same amount of candy you get of volume of like 3 and 12 oz, we'll call it 3 and 1 half to 4 ounces. You know, they could sell theirs for like a $1.50 and I'll sell mine for like 320, right? And you might look at that and be like, well, why would anyone buy less candy for more money? And I was like, well, I can't scale the business if I try to compete on price. Like, I have to sell it for more. But I just used my gut. And I was like, okay, I think that if I even though even if I wasn't doing well and like I was, you know, in college or something as a candy fanatic, if I if I see a new candy, I'm going to try it. And if I like it, I'm going to keep getting it. And even if it's like a dollar extra, but if it's a better candy, I think Old Max would still buy the more the better candy. And I think that other people will too. So if you go into any store that sells Sour Strips, 100% of those stores, we will be the more expensive than any other candy on the shelf based on our size. Like 100%
16:04 of stores, like y'all can go to any of them. And I but and I proved that like the market will like accept a higher price candy that is in my opinion a great candy that it's like I'm willing to pay the extra money but like that had never been done before. So a lot of people would have looked at like this data and done all these things and been like there's no way this could be this could work and I'm like I'm going to try it anyway, right? So I think you you got to just like put yourself out there and don't be afraid of just trying things and learning from your mistakes. And um with CPG business, people get caught up in just thinking they need to know everything and thinking that they uh like everything that's out there is the only way that it can be done. And I think that's just not right. I think you bring up a really good point. Um I've noticed like everyone that at least I know that crushes it when they create products and things, they actually are
16:55 the consumer and they love the customer cuz they are the customer. But then when I hear like these analytical guys or whatever, it's almost like they don't treat people as a different as a breathing human being that likes something. It's like Yeah. I mean, you can get into the numbers and the stats and everything and see what works on a regular, but if you don't understand the world and the product, like they just can't communicate like what needs to be bought or whatever. I I don't know. And then I just think that's the number one if if they can take anything, it's like actually liking the customer. Yeah. And and also like I try to talk in a way that like it shows that like that the maybe the average person can like understand where I'm not trying to like just throw a bunch of terms at you to make it like appear that I'm like this
17:46 elevated business guy. Like I'm just I'm just If I went on Shark Tank, I'd get wrecked, man. Like they asked me questions, they'd be like, "What's your customer acquisition cost?" I'm like, "I don't know." Yeah. Alex or Mosy like what you know like like how much how much money do you allocate every month for like a a budget and why do you allocate that amount of money? Like uh I I just I just spend money on stuff that I think will be good and you know we I check the bank account each day and as long as we're growing that means we're you know we're that means the business is growing and so I think we're we're fine. But I don't have like budget spreadsheets and all this ████ Like I'm and I'm not saying that's like the right way to do it or maybe you should do it the way that I've done it. But I think there's just like you don't have to be a an expert in a field to make an impact in the field. Yeah. For sure. The worst thing that could have happened is if you just did it too late. Yeah. I mean I that was a a huge part of what we did was luck of
18:36 timing. I mean before the whole co thing at the the the the place I was at my uh my social media popularity is like and then just before the landscape started being more saturated where everyone started maybe realizing that oh influencer brands are like you know they can make a bunch of money from maybe influencer brands if they put their face on it type of thing where I was like I didn't I didn't like analyze the market and saw it. I was just like oh my friend makes energy drinks. He likes energy drinks. I like candy. Uh let me try to see if I can make candy. like like that was that was like the whole mindset. I walked in one day to my um my kind of like right-hand employee Mona who's been with me since day one who's still you know helping me run the company and um I was just like Mona got an idea sour candy I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to figure this out and I need you to help me with customer service on it. She's like okay like you know it wasn't like here's my business plan. Let me let
19:27 me like map it out for you. Here's here's our like projected targets of goals we're going to have. Here's our go to market strategy. It's just like I don't know. I found a manufacturer. I found a bag. Me and uh Joe and like you know over the weekend we made a really cool design with the bag and um yeah uh we let's get some people together to to ship it out. We'll go up USPS I think. I don't know. And uh we'll just go from there. And like that was how it started. And then before you know it, it's like managing actual operations and logistics with like, you know, now we have, you know, 700 racks in our warehouse and, you know, millions of bags on hand and um but it just started with an idea and a love for candy. Yeah, that's the biggest part, too, is that you legitimately actually like it and you're not just some guy that's like, "What's the best thing to sell?" I love the money. Yeah. So much money. One of the
20:17 best things I can tell you of anyone that's like what I want to start a business is like look at anything that you use or consume on a daily basis like the products, the services, whatever it is. Pornhub maybe. That's a business which is banned in Texas. Really? Oh, really? Yeah. That's a bummer. Some good VPNs for you. I'll use baby a food, a drink, a clothing, a bag, like a whatever. I mean, it could be anything. And a lot of people think they need to like reinvent the wheel or like literally solve world hunger to like change the world and ████ All you're trying to do in in in business is like you're just trying to like solve problems, right? If you can solve a problem for enough people at scale, you can make a bunch of money. And it just you got to find like pain points and frustrations that you have. So, if you look at anything and you're like, "Man,
21:08 I I use this thing all the time. I eat this. I drink this." Whatever. I I just I I really wish it was just like this one thing was different about it or like this backpack had this one little feature, right? Then I would love it even more. I really wish it and like I'm I love this thing so much and I' So I know the whole market. Um and I I there's nothing that has the thing, but I really wish it was. There's millions of people that probably think the same way about this like tweak on existing product and like it just has to be who's the first person to do it and like you know do it correctly or or get lucky in a lot of ways and make an impact and then that that shifts the whole industry itself right like Sour Strips is you know high and mighty as I want to make it sound like Sour Strips has impacted the candy space like indefinitely like it has changed what like the the space like was on a long time maybe on a small scale But like it showed what it can be
21:58 and what it and what like can happen with influencer marketing and a different industry and a premium in a premium pricing. Like it it it changed things and now a lot of other you know companies are probably going to make little tweaks and they're going to change things based on this one little change that you made. So you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You just need to improve on the wheel. And so that's like if you're ever looking for a business, what is the ████ that you use or do every day? And like what do you hate about like one little thing? And like that could be like the single like product idea or service that you could offer to the world that there might be a whole bunch of people that also feel the same way. And for me it was like I hate that, you know, all the sour candy isn't that sour. And I also think that all all candy is uh like targeted towards like little kids and there's nothing that's like a cool brand and no one's really,
22:48 you know, impacting in like the social media space and like simple ideas that like the other companies could have easily tweaked their own things and created that, but they didn't, right? They didn't at the place for whatever reason because of all their their market data showed that that's not what the consumer wants cuz they're old. And I'm like, I'm the consumer and I want this and it's not out there and I would know if it is because I'm the I'm a lover of this thing. And uh that's what you're trying to do is like sol and you just got to solve problems. And if you can solve problems on stuff that people can buy on a daily basis, you know, hopefully maybe if everyone's eating candy every day, but like that's why like consumables and drinks, everyone like latches to them because you can buy them over and over and over again. If you solve problems for something that people only need to buy once a month, then you know it's going to be hard. Then you have to start getting a lot of customers and it's a lot different. Then you can start making problems up. Yeah.
23:38 Yeah.
// end of tape