In this Friday Conversation, we were joined by Ryan and Jeff Gardner, Owners of Bucked Up. Ryan is the CEO and handles the day-to-day operations. Jeff Is the CXO and works to make Bucked Up a worldwide brand. In this conversation, they talk about how their entrepreneurial journey started and the start of Bucked Up.
The twin brothers got their start working on their dads farm growing up. Jeff recalls a time where he forgot to feed the chickens and his dad got so angry and kicked his butt out to the chicken coop so he could feed the chickens. This is where they really learned a strong work ethic and how important it is to work hard.
After they returned home from their missions for the church, Jeff started working as a piercer in malls throughout Utah and ran eight of his parents jewelry stores. At this time, Ryan was working on a sales floor upselling coaching and mentoring to individuals that attended seminars. Ryan then started producing leads for sales floors with different items. It was at this time they decided to start their own business selling other things, like weight loss supplements.
After they had started this new business, they had successfully grown a company from $700 a day to $4-5 M a year. They decided to sell this company to a manufacturer that wanted all of the manufacturing. They had realized that selling supplements was the smart thing to do because people would take them every day and have to get a new bottle every 30 days.
While reading Sports Illustrated, they saw an article about Deer Antler Spray being banned in the MLB. They decided to do some research and found out that it was deer antler velvet extract that you would spray on your tongue and it helps people recover quickly. They looked up the domain DeerAntlerSpray.com and it was available for $6.99, so they bought it. They weren't getting a ton of sales until one day they got 100 sales, then five minutes later another hundred. It turns out that Ray Lewis, former NFL player, was accused of taking Deer Antler Spray and it was all over the news.
They started marking up the price and it kept selling, until they finally sold out. Jeff & Ryan got a call from GNC and got the spray into GNC stores. They decided to work on pre-workout formula with a GNC franchisee because they realized that's what was hot on the market. They wanted to be different and actually showcase the ingredients in the pre-workout. This is where Bucked Up got its start.
There is so much more to the Bucked Up story that was possible because of luck, strategy, and hard work. Take a listen to the full story below.
