Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 28 - Bruce Cardenas

Episode Date: March 30, 2018

Bruce is the Chief Communications Officer at Quest Nutrition, Brand & Relationship Builder and possibly one of the best follows on instagram. Whether it's The Rock posing for a photo, a booth full of fitness chicks, or literally anybody famous, you can bet Bruce is there. Learn how he became a part of Quest Nutrition and is helping to grow the already gigantic brand. This episode was filmed on location in southern California. ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell

How do you guys meet each other? How do you guys know each other? Are we on a strip club? We're live. We know each other from the Mecca, right? From Gold's Gym. Is that how we initially met? Yeah, I met you because somebody told me that you were with Quest.

Were we talking about the posing room or what happened? Somebody told me you were with Quest and I was like, all right, I'm going to go talk to that guy because I'm fat and I like these bars. You did? That's right. And I just came and talked to you, yeah. We were just trying to get free shit. That's all you're trying to do?

I was trying to get free shit, but then he reversed it on me because he knew I knew a lot of people too. So then I helped him give free shit to other people. Relationships. Relationships. Yeah, that's kind of what it is. How long have you been in fitness, Bruce? Fitness?

You know, I competed in powerlifting when I was in high school. I was always an athlete, mildly competitive in powerlifting. But when I went in the Marine Corps is when I really got serious about competing. Right. And then how did this relationship happen with Quest Nutrition? It's a strange. Kind of unorthodox, right? Completely unorthodox, completely serendipitous.

What I told you earlier is Shannon, who goes by Quest Creator, worked out in the gym where I worked out. Yeah. And I always saw her on the stair master reading bodybuilding magazines, which is rare, right. For a, a, a bay club.

So we started chatting it up. And a few weeks after we met, I went to the LA fitness expo at my girlfriend at a time and stumbled across the quest booth. And it was not a booth. It was a table with an ugly black tablecloth. And I think they had two or three flavors and we hit it off and she gave me some products and,

and it kind of evolved from there and you just like the product like the product and actually i get brought it to my at the time i had the security business i brought it to work and showed a couple of guys and they were like wow these are not your normal crappy crummy you know yeah at the time there was kind of a lot of shitty bars back then the sawdust ones as soon as i remember like as soon as i tried them i remember i actually would go on a search for them so i heard about them and i saw about i saw them on social media there was this girl courtney prather i think her name was she was one of the original

ambassadors for it right and i saw on her instagram and i kept writing her messages going like how do i get these she said i think they have a shop or something. So I went to a vitamin shop, tracked them down. I tried them and it was the best bar I had ever had. And then I had met you and I was excited about them already. Cause I was, I had like sought them out. You know, that's funny.

Courtney Pratt or she was one of our original, uh, ambassadors. I mean, I mentioned her. Yeah. Let's, uh,

back it up just a little bit because the time, you know, at the time there was a lot of shitty bars on the market. Like there was Metrex bars. Like some of the companies were doing okay with flavor profile. Like some of them weren't too terrible. But the macronutrients were like awesome. Metrex bars were great, but they had 50 grams of carbs.

Yeah, it had like 50 grams of like sugar. And then remember like the steel bar and there was the… The detour bar was, that was the big hit. Yeah, it had like 50 grams of like sugar. And then remember like the steel bar and there was the- The detour bar was, that was the big hit. Yeah, steel bar. And remember, we basically, you and I invented the pure protein bar. Yeah, yeah, basically. Because I found a pure protein bar living in Albany, New York, going to a Gold's Gym. And I saw that first one, the purple one with the yellow writing, the original pure protein bar.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Before they got busted for not having the right you know stuff in there or whatever and they tasted they tasted really good that was a huge breakthrough for protein bar so i was all fired up and i called him i was like oh my god they got these bars he's like they don't have them out here yet normally he saw everything first because he was in venice right and so we started talking about it and he's like i'm gonna he's like i'm gonna figure out how to get these at the...

Yeah, so I found them and I brought them to George who owns LA Urban Fitness on Main Street in Santa Monica. That place is great. They have everything there.

Let me try them. Let me see if they're good. And as soon as he took a bite of one, he said, this thing is amazing. And then he started ordering them. They were fluffy and light.

Yeah, we claimed that we invented them because we found them. And I'd and light. Yeah, we claimed that. George is a great guy. We're still friends. We claimed that. We invented them because we found them. And I'd be dating myself, but that used to be a Metrix Cafe back in the day. Yeah. Do you guys remember that at all? Yeah.

Metrix Cafe was next door. Yeah, I remember that. And LA Urban Fitness was just a tiny little thing. Now LA Urban Fitness has the whole thing and another store. So they've kind of blown up too. LA Urban Fitness was great. Every time we'd walk in there, the guy would just go insane. every time we'd go in because he'd be like oh my god he's like that creatine's working so good for you like he's like what'd you get last time glutamine he's like a lot of glutamine

he's like it's working unbelievable he's like look at you look at your shoulders you know he's like we got to get you you know and then he's they pump you up salesman they pump you up big so you buy more stuff that's when i had all the pictures on the wall of all the old timers and champs it was yeah i like you going in there yeah the place was uh it just jam-packed with with pictures they actually had a picture of uh of jake your son oh yeah underneath the glass for like the longest time yeah they don't have all these pictures in there now they have everything on a computer i think in there they still cleaned it up it's more modern but i used to go in there and buy the box of metrics powder with you know the envelopes that you'd shake and yeah yeah remember how thick that stuff would mix

up that was you needed like a cement mixer in the day that was that was really amazing though so how did the quest bars come to be any idea uh yeah very well so i mean listen shannon was making them in her kitchen and she was literally making them for she'd have boot camps for the ladies on weekends and bringing them and then her like uh dad or something was a bodybuilder well yeah so her dad chet yorton was a very famous bodybuilder he beat arnold i believe in the 1967 mr universe so she's got some fitness heritage yeah but she was making him in her kitchen and then ron took him to work her husband and it was a tech company at the time and the tech guys actually liked him so you know they're the guys eating doritos and oreos and they actually enjoyed him and said hey you should bring more back and uh that's kind of

where it started he uh no intentions to get in that business and he pitched his partners i think he said he took about six months to convince them to do this because they're they had no interest in who wants to start we're at some interesting times now where everyone is gunning to be an entrepreneur and a lot of people are like gunning to be in the fitness industry. And they'll just pick certain things. They're not really, they're not founded the way that this bar was found, you know?

And there's a lot of people that are trying to just sell like clothes or sell a protein powder or sell, but it's so disconnected from the original basis of Quest Nutrition. What do you kind of think of some of that? 100%. Yeah. Nowadays, I think if you have a couple of bucks, you can go to a co-manufacturer and say, hey, make me a protein and let me slap my name on it.

And you market it if you're a good marketer. Quest really, originally, they really wanted to change the world. They had a healthy product with no added sugar and it tastes good. And that's what catapulted us, that people just enjoyed it. And their intentions were good. Like, we want to put a healthy product out there. They wouldn't have made it if they could not have produced it. So many of the bars come and go.

We've seen thousands of them come and go. What's the difference with Quest? What makes them different? Well, I got to tell you, the year we launched, I think they said there was a few hundred bar companies that launched, believe it or not, across the world. Oh, wow. Most are probably not around. I think it was honestly the clean ingredients and it tastes good. They were the two things. Because come on, the time where bars launched,

they either have that aftertaste, chalky taste. Right. You guys also did something that's pretty innovative. You weren't cheap. You gave out full bars. And that was a big thing. You go to an expo and you get a little piece of this bar, a little piece of that bar, and you never really get to try it.

But Quest was never cheap. Even if you got a free bar, you'd and give another another free bar yeah and one of the things i tell people now because i talk to other people that own companies and how was your success listen i said be generous with samples it may cost you a couple bucks but even early on at quest if you wrote us which by the way we got on the facebook bandwagon right about the right time it wasn't huge for businesses if people wrote us we would send two bars at our cost with postage and that created such a rabbit fan people were like my god you got to check this quest bar out they sent free

and the same thing with expos to this day we give out whole bars and a lot of people are going to hold on to the wrapper too to try to remember the name of the company and everything if you don't want to give it out a little chunk how are you going to remember honestly who's going around who wants to do the toothpick and you know right but it's all we even to this day we don't have to do anymore we still do it a full sample what are some other And you know Right But it's all Even to this day We don't have to do it anymore We still do it Right A full sample What are some other things

You guys have done Because it seems like For you personally It seems like you're everywhere Like when I see your Instagram You know there might be A picture with you With The Rock

Then you're with my brother Then you're with like Michael Hearn Then you're like in this spot And that spot And you're all You're everywhere With congressmen

Police officers Bodybuilders. And then, of course, all the fitness chicks we always see you with. A couple of those. I pride myself on, Mark, I call it pride and ownership. I tell everyone, you need to have pride in what you do. And I really do enjoy it. I mean, it's an easy sell. We're not selling something bad.

And it's easy. We're feeding people. And I just enjoy connecting with people and building relationships. And it's natural. I mean, it comes easy to me. And it doesn't come easy to a lot of people. Some people, I think it's uncomfortable to engage people at times. And probably when I was younger, I was a little shyer, but to me, it's easy. Hey, I'm going to offer you a Quest bar. I'm not trying to give you something radioactive. Yeah, you're probably going to like it. Yeah, yeah. Going back to what he was saying about everybody's trying to be an entrepreneur. I think it's pretty inspiring

that quest. Didn't you guys break some records as far as how fast the company actually grew? Yeah. In 2014, we were named the second fastest growing company in the country by Inc 500. And that's in all categories. And just for the record, the one that was named number one went out of business. Oh my God. So yeah, it's, it's been a phenomenal run for being seven and a half years old. I want to say like a number I heard was like it grew like 400,000% or something. Yeah, I think it was 57,000% because I don't know where they come up with that data. Yeah, it was some crazy. But it was, and it's interesting looking back while I was on the ride, it just, you don't

really, it's almost a blur how it happened. One thing, and GNC is a great great partner of ours but they came to us people because the hype great became so great on facebook and the word of mouth that retailers were reaching out to us and hey we gotta we gotta carry your product we heard great things about it well that's a big thing is a lot of people are like overreaching a lot of times they're reaching out to people and reaching out for things and chasing after things that they haven't quite earned yet correct exactly kind of better off having it just fall into your lap almost and listen it's a lot of yeah exactly and it's a lot of work i mean if you're going to start a company you got to put the time in you know we started out doing the bodybuilding shows john

lindsey shows in culver city we're still there but we we did them every every yeah you guys are at a lot of shows that's a big deal like a of times, a lot of times companies won't have time for that or they won't make the time for it. Rather, they don't make the time. They outgrow the space. I call it. Hey, we started here, but then I feel it's important to stay loyal to where you started. We started in bodybuilding, the fitness community will always be there.

Now we're, of course, in Walmart and Target and the Midwest. But that's where we started. You guys have any growing pains and any problems come up? Like, you know, you're using all these different new ingredients that nobody's ever used. You start to use them in the millions, it's got to be problematic. Yeah, I think there's problems every day. I mean, you know, you overcome obstacles every day.

You know, when we started using allulose in some of the bars, people didn't know what that was. It's been around forever, but we were one of the first companies to use it. What is allulose? Explain that a little bit. Well, the simplest term, it's been around forever but we were one of the first companies to use it what is allulose explain that a little bit well the simplest terms it's derived from fruits dates and and different things but your body doesn't digest it it's about a fraction of what so it's it's you have to label it because the fda as sugar but your body doesn't digest it you basically urinate it out but it's when you have to explain that to people they still look at it's labeled as sugar but we are the the bar label i remember from this is a little confusing but it has information with it yeah to help you with some of the math and listen and one

thing ron has always been innovative in that you know coming up with the latest things and and we took a risk with allulose but it's done very well well ron is really interesting he like not to say he doesn't care it's like the wrong wording but like it seems like he his focus is on making a great product yeah i when i I tell you that the cookies, we tasted cookies three years ago, and we just launched them. We kept scrapping them, and I'd be like, they're amazing. No, they're not. We'd throw them away. It took three years to launch those.

We had been dabbling in products that will eventually come out, but he's a perfectionist when it comes out, which is, I think, something to be really proud of. He's telling me he's still not happy with stuff. Yeah, yeah. There's things that are out that he's like we got to improve it yeah he's kind of grumpy about it yeah what's that point like when you get to the point where you're like okay now it's perfect um is it ever perfect because you're always going to want to it'll be a new and improved right the bars change we like evolve we have new bars coming out yeah you're always going to want to up the ante a little bit, right? Yeah. With your background, has that helped a lot?

Because you're a Marine and then you were LAPD. LAPD. I'd imagine you develop thick skin and, you know, you asking somebody to try some quest bars and stuff is probably a little bit easier having that background and stuff like that, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's interesting.

When I tell people I was a Marine and a cop, they think of more of a tough, hard ass. And I could be, I guess, but I'm more of a tough, hard ass. And I could be, I guess, but I'm more of a relationship guy and building. And the irony is a lot of the people I knew when I was a cop or when I had the bodyguard business, a lot of celebrities are now Quest fans. Like I've reached out to people

I used to do protection with, say, hey, by the way, and now I'm in this other industry, like Jessica Simpson, different artists that are now fans of Quest. Oh, that's a lot safer. Yeah, right, a lot safer are now fans of Quest. A lot safer. Yeah, right, a lot safer. But it's unique.

I've just built relationships that I think lasted for decades. How have you built some of these relationships? Has a lot of it happened at Gold's Gym? That's one place, Gold's. Running some of these people and just training? Gold's Gym in general, I mean, I think the places I go, I used to be involved a lot with the security with the music awards and entertainment awards and like a lot of people

don't know but we we're in the gift bags and a lot of the academy awards the emmys the oscars and a lot of the green rooms just and by the way just by relationships because i have a lot of people ask me how did you get in there listen you got to develop relationships there's probably brands that do pay for that but we're fortunate that people want our product. You just mentioned, I said, a lot of people don't know. I think a lot of companies have a hard time wrapping their brain around that. You know, like you've always told me like, hey, I'm going to give you some quest bars and you don't need to say anything about it. I think most companies don't understand that.

What's the philosophy behind that? I think a lot of marketing people, and I say now or in general, hey, I'm going to send you something. I expect you to talk about it. There's no expectation. We always use the philosophy, the fight club. We don't talk about it. I'd send you, and we did that even from the beginning, and it worked well.

We had, I remember a few years ago, we met Rhonda Rousey at an expo, and we became friendly, sent her a product, and she did a tweet. The whole time her manager was bothering us to do a deal, and he called me and says, hey, Rhonda just did a tweet about you about quest and so that's wonderful but she did it organically right he was upset because there was no money so i talked to her and she goes i did it because i like you guys but we've been so fortunate in an arena where

people like arnold or have just organically talked about it just kind over and over again and i think it's because we never ask anything in return yeah i think that's why you show up with a nice gift box at your house maybe they talk about it maybe they don't makes you want to post yeah you feel good about it as opposed to right anyway well you've been sending stuff to my house forever and you still don't talk about us no no i never i never will i'll never say i'm kidding the uh with the um with the quest bars my wife has never been a huge fan of the quest bars okay but with the legendary foods you guys started sending some of that stuff and she's like oh my god she's like she likes a lot of the nut butters and some of the

different things you guys have and so eventually I think we're gonna your kindness will always pay off you know in the long run and one thing our goal is and what Ron's vision is and our vision is go picture going to a super bowl party and you have the the table where there's pizzas and nachos and cookies there will eventually be a quest table so yeah we have cookies now we're gonna have other things that's my theory too i'm gonna get you somewhere whether it's the shoes or the knee sleeves or the elbow sleeves or it's not cookies or peanut butter or dog food we're gonna cover your family in every way we can plus water how did dog food come to be so as you know with with you know our passion about looking at answers for cancer we started the foundation epigenetics

foundation and we have the ranch in texas which we've taken quite a few dogs in and reverse tumors cancers with the ketogenic diet which you guys are very familiar with right and uh you know ron had a vision and we started the uh the valiant dog food which is you know freeze-dried keto type foods and uh just another another another right a lot of people don't know their dogs are eating crap if they're not eating like a raw food diet and and it's interesting most dogs i believe are they're carnivores right they're not supposed to be eating carbs and you spend as much on your dogs as you do on your kids but yeah they're not they weren't raised to eat grains and cereals.

So most people, if you're going to do it right, should be feeding them raw foods. So what's in these raw freeze-dried medallions? Yeah, all meats and vegetables. That's it. Yeah. Keeping it easy. Have you tried one? No.

We'll try one right now. Okay, Mark, we'll try one right now. You mentioned a little earlier, you said that you've kind of taken ownership in the company. And I think that's important for employees to feel that way. But this week, when you walked around with the actual owner, Ron Penna, you said that it kind of felt a little awkward a couple of times because he's the he's the actual owner and people are like fuck i thought you owned it the whole time i've been experienced that since day one i've been to dinner with these guys and people will approach me or at expos and say hey bruce how you doing i love your product by the way who are these guys oh when people introduce you as the owner of quest nutrition you probably don't correct them right no i don't and it's interesting ron never has i mean because it's always been a very i've never claimed it but people call me all

the time hey you want to come on this show i'm looking for the owner and it's it's at times it's awkward but it just come to be that i guess because of what i've done for the company it's just what they believe right so and and everything you've done for the company has been all kind of relationship based is there any uh is there any like paperwork behind the scenes is there a lot of other stuff that you're doing for the company as well or is it mainly just uh you know having these relationships with uh celebrities and these uh kind of event relationships yeah what's paperwork i don't know yeah how do you how do you keep track of stuff because i used to tell you like hey bruce can you send me a box of bars or whatever he never

wrote anything down you don't seem like a desk guy not a desk guy at all he just showed up so for sure one of my weaknesses don't ask me to do an excel spreadsheet uh but i still carry a day planner um no it's tough because i'll give an example i came back from the arnold expo and i have about 30 business cards and probably most of them i i'm going to send product to but it's a follow-up thing yeah ron i need a new assistant yeah i was gonna say do you have someone to do an excel people over the years, and right now I don't, but it's interesting. I have so much follow-up to do. And like you said, I'll run into John Cena at the gym. Oh, God, I sent him something.

And it's every day. You just got to remember to do it. It's every day. I usually have to make a note. And then sometimes someone will remind me, hey, our event's this weekend. Oh, shit, I better FedEx that shit overnight. Yeah. But it's constantly.

Quest has been unconventional from the beginning. How did the company, you mentioned how they started with Ron's wife making the bars in her kitchen and everything. Kind of what happened from that point on? I mean, the manufacturing and stuff like that. Did they go to like a co-packer and somebody was making them or did they make them themselves the whole time? Well, I tell you, they were making them. So obviously in Shannon in the Kitchen, they evolved to getting commissary space at night you know renting space and making them by hand and they were probably pretty expensive yeah three tech guys making them by hand they had no intentions

of getting in manufacturing it was once they took let's just call it the dough the material they took it to manufacturers and no one could produce it everyone said hell it was really hey put some agave liquid sugar make it more pliable doughy and it'll work. So we wouldn't change our philosophy and the machinery. So they ended up buying a used piece of equipment. And honestly, Mike Osborne, who was one of our founders and has acted as the COO and CFO, and he's just a great guy, good old farm boy. He modified the equipment to work and still by no means was that a success. Modified it to work and still by no means was that a success right modified it to work and still with some challenges right but it got to the point where we ended up manufacturing to the point

where i think we were manufacturing a million five bars a day wow and it's interesting we just got out of the manufacturing business so now that after all these years other people now have figured out how to make it right so now we farm it out to uh comans that saves us a fortune that's an insane amount that's an insane uh volume but he's saying it must have been some growing pains oh yeah growing pains go yeah how do we knew nothing about manufacturing we had to hire people but the point is we were gonna we were just gonna be a sales and marketing company no no intentions of being coming to shipping and manufacturing have you helped with some other relationships you mentioned gnc have you kind of helped with

some of that or is that more for no no i think everything I mean I'm involved with you know GNC vitamin shop they have celebrity golf tournaments Europa which is a big partner Roz they have the expos they have events I yeah you guys made some keto products for a little while we were just talking about some of that stuff um can you talk about that a little bit yeah for sure we had a keto line um right now it's it we've temporarily put it on hold it's done it's done very well the demand is crazy and as you guys know i still brought you some snacks um we're re-looking we're re-evaluating that now probably going to a kill manufacturer and do the snacks right probably not the meals right now but the snacks for sure there's been yeah i think the snacks are a great a great idea and it's a tool that we definitely need the peanut butter diet is for sure you know yeah you need it

to be easy yeah that's one thing with the diet people always have a lot of questions about the sugar alcohols and what carbohydrates do i count and you know are these cookies and things like that okay and what i always tell people is whatever will keep you on the diet yeah exactly you know whatever will keep your momentum whatever will keep you because we know consistency is the key exactly have you been able to be consistent as you would like with your own fitness and your own training and stuff like that um no no to be honest i mean i've had peaks and valleys i mean i'll be honest you started very young and you've been you've been lifting your whole life and i did fairly well in powerlifting not to your level but

i had some pretty decent numbers uh i'd say three years ago it's interesting i went hardcore keto and intermittent fasting at the same time got You got real lean for a while. Boy, I was down. As a matter of fact, I'm a slob. I feel like I was down 35 pounds from where I am now. So you guys are going to make me feel like shit. Well, we all have our… You just get back on it.

That's all. It's a tool. You just get back on it. Because once you're in the rhythm, it's easy. Right. Yeah, we all have our ups and downs. And what I've learned over the years is that your uh your willpower will waver you know kind of with your mood and just with your lifestyle and just with where everything's going but it's your habits that will always bring you back so if you have

habit to go in the gym and train and then eventually you'll you'll head back in that direction yeah i never not i always train i always like even if i'm traveling and you know i still you're always in the gym super training and he had the most amazing uh boat neck shirt that i've seen in a long time yeah bruce yeah he has some good old school like bill belichick style that's funny i get comments on that yeah people ask me to make them for him cut off the neck yeah yeah it's a custom made i didn't realize i'm throwing myself back to the 80s but i guess yeah you got it like barbarian brother style yeah you gotta wear the boat neck with like the tank top underneath so this you I didn't realize I'm throwing myself back to the 80s, but I guess. Yeah, you got it. Like Barbarian Brothers style. Yeah, yeah. You got to wear the boat neck with like the tank top underneath.

So this, you know. What kind of numbers were you hitting back in the powerlifting days? Nothing to be, 440 bench. That's pretty damn good. That's a huge bench. Yeah, a little over six on a deadlift and squat. Yeah. That's great. Yeah, it's not, you know.

Those are big names. I'm not going anywhere big, but. What do you think the best athlete that you've been around? Because you've actually worked out with a lot of these guys. Yeah, I've been very fortunate. Yeah. Who do you think is one of the more impressive people that you just worked out with? You and I haven't actually worked out together.

We haven't. You've stayed about 50 yards apart. Yeah, pretty close. You know, I recently worked. I was actually not. I worked out with Branch Warren, the CFO of Falcor. He's a beast. I heard Branch Warren really tears it up in the gym. I worked out with Branch Warren, the CFO of Falcor. He's a beast. I heard Branch Warren really tears it up in the gym.

I heard he gets after it. Yeah, there's no lightweight in his world. I heard everything's 15 reps, and he tries to go as heavy as possible. Maybe a little too heavy. But I had the pleasure of working out with him when I was in Vegas for an event. And yeah, that was an honor. You get a chance to work out with Michael Hearn? No, Mike and I haven't worked out.

We're actually working out next week. Oh, cool. I worked out with Jay Cutler aler a few times yeah how's that he did it was just a regular workout i thought he was pretty he's pretty mellow guy he just maintained you right yeah he wasn't gonna kill you i gotta tell you i meet a lot of people in general he's just a great human being yeah i think he's one of the best ambassadors at the uh event this weekend right yeah he came by the deadlift contest that we ran yeah we've become pretty good friends and i'll be honest i he was one of the first guy i looked at and admired i was that we were at an expo at the hotel gym working out and he was on the

treadmill a kid came up and tapped on his shoulder why he's in you know three miles an hour asking for a picture he got off took a picture so later on i saw him and he goes just you know i'm an ambassador of the sport he goes did he have the right etiquette to do that but i'm gonna always stop for my fans and and i've watched you see him at an expo he'll wait till the lights are out he'll be the last one to leave a lot of times people are excited yeah they're not thinking they're not they're not really yeah oh my god there's mr olympia like all this cardio session super important for him to get to the next yeah you know you're not thinking of any of those things you're just you're just fired up but i multiple but i've always admired him on how he treats people and how respectful he is and he stops talk to everybody

and yeah i got a chance to uh to listen to him speak before and it was really cool and i thought uh man what a beast the guy is because he said that he really didn't like a lot of it but he just made himself do it yeah i think that's an important thing when it comes to when it comes to anything in life is to kind of make yourself do the things that you don't want to do we don't normally want to do them yeah yeah just kind of keep keep uh keep pushing forward what's next for you guys what are you guys working on now um some top secret stuff because i'm talking about some top top secret yeah but there's a couple cool things coming out that you're going to blow you away

foods yeah that's cool. And then you guys have gotten involved in CrossFit and everything too, right? You've gotten involved in some of these new spaces also. Yeah, yeah. I got us involved in CrossFit about five years ago, like I said. So we're dabbling that again. We took a little break, but the demand is there. We're back in that. We're in some Tough Mudder events this year.

You guys have tried some things like the keto meals. You've tried that head thing, and I think you're bringing that head thing back, the like the keto meals you've tried the uh the that head thing and i think you're bringing that head thing back yeah the training device the all strike right because ron is into martial arts right um i i admire that i think that's cool he also had like pasta right and yeah a bunch of different things i forgot about the talking noodle they either worked or didn't work right yeah they weren't a big seller it's like a fiber source but they were good i think think, if people crave pasta. Yeah.

But I'm just saying, Mark, to his point, he's like, you guys tried a lot of things. Oh, yeah. We're not afraid to try things. And the all-strike, the head is coming back. And you even had an apparel company for a while. Like, they had an apparel company. The potato chips. They're still around.

They're still around. The protein chips. You're going to see some newer versions of that are going to be amazing. Yeah. I remember talking to Quest nutrition years ago i can't remember who i was talking to from the company but uh they kind of mentioned that that was the goal was to create more food it's not a supplement company uh how did how is that different than uh some of the other supplement companies out there the mindset that you guys have well yeah we've always probably if you look

at our packaging it's it's attractive there's nothing we always have the saying it's not a veins and you know chains there's not a lot of, it's attractive. There's nothing, we always have this saying, it's not a veins and, you know, chains. There's not a lot of muscle on there. There's no muscle head on it. And we did that by design. I mean, obviously, we're very popular in the bodybuilding community, but we can also attract, you know, everybody. Yeah, I find that that's really interesting because you guys don't even have sponsored

athletes. And I know that out of every single company, you probably get the most requests. You've probably had thousands of people request to be sponsored by Quest, but you guys don't sponsor anybody. And you've held steadfast on that for a really long time. Yeah, we have Quest squad members. There's probably 400 people around the country that represent us, but you know. In a different way.

In a different way. They send product, they do missions. But yeah, we pride ourselves on being a food company. So it's attractive for everyone. Where do you guys spend your money when it comes to advertising it seems like you guys have a set kind of schedule there's definitely a big piece of the marketing budget you know on ad space digital campaigns uh we do a lot of you know a lot of youtube stuff a lot of youtube a lot of coupons i always get the little recipes pop up on every almost every video is quest nutrition right but and we're also in grocery now so you do coupon things with different grocery chains gnc but the money's not necessarily

spent on just giving it to like particular athletes it's more so in marketing like you're talking about some digital marketing and then also putting money behind maybe like a sport or a cause rather than like just a single person yeah correct yeah because we never we never it's smart those people the people the people shift around a lot. And we agreed early on. We didn't want a face of the company, per se. I mean, we wanted... Having them in the airport is huge.

Oh, the airport's done well. They have them at LAX now. Yeah. I bought four bars the other day, just in case, you know? You don't know what's going to happen. No, it's kind of funny. We were just talking about this the other day with Ron.

People send me pictures from the airport. Hey, I just bought one of your bars. But early on, when we were so small, there was a group of about six of us at Quest, we would send, oh my God, I just saw this in a mobile station. It was so exciting. Now we feel that with our fans, right?

I say I'm at an airport in Germany. Yeah, I was surprised to see him in the airport, but I was excited because I bought a couple of them. Yeah, there's a lot of bars on the market. I was told they're expensive at the airport. No, they were, I think, actually it was like less than I thought really they were like probably like 350 or something yeah yeah but who cares it's like you know that you pay for the captive audience yeah pay for the

convenience yeah they yeah they they have to they have to uh they have to purchase it what's your favorite part of working for the company um the freedom to build uh genuine relationships yeah yeah it's it's authentic no one's holding me back i can you know we're in the wwe an irony of you know we all grew up watching it was fun but now we really have righteous fans like they invite you didn't you guys go to a match recently went to a couple of them me and bruce yeah but it's really weird of all places you think they write me hey mr mcmahon wants him in his you know office we go to the wwe we're backstage and like rick comes up and like hey bruce so it's kind of cool last thing you want is a chicken you know another chicken breast or another piece of steak you know sometimes you want something different and even before the super bowl i was

fortunate enough i sent some product to both teams not all the players obviously i didn't have all their information and it was cool because right before they were getting on their buses they were they were tweeting about hey thanks for the bars right so we've been fortunate to touch a lot of different verticals in sports so it's really cool and with the one thing i'll touch on in the nfl which is i think it's great for our brand you know gatorade's the official nfl brand right but we have 24 teams that buy from us you're like the unofficial we're the unofficial and i was fortunate enough i grew up a pittsburgh sealer fan i grew up in jersey and i've been back to their headquarters twice,

and they have a whole area, like a quest kiosk for their players. Terry Bradshaw was my hero growing up. By the way, he loves cinnamon bun. So I was on the show. I went on the show where they film at Fox, and he tracked me down. He texts me and goes, hey, I'm out of cinnamon bun. I got to meet Terry Bradshaw. We got to make that happen.

He's our guy. He's a legend. He's my man. He's amazing. He's a great speaker, too. We need to get him on the podcast. Yeah meet Terry Bradshaw. We've got to make that happen. He's our guy. He's a legend. He's my man. He's amazing. He's a great speaker, too. We need to get him on the podcast. Yeah. Terry Bradshaw.

But that whole lineup, Michael Strahan's a big fan. That whole crew. Yeah. Great. Michael Strahan, there's another Hall of Famer. Another savage. Those guys are beasts for sure. How's your, you're going to hit the gym with us tomorrow at 4 o'clock?

You want to jump in on that schedule? Do I need an invite? With O'Hearn? We're going to be with O'Hearn. Are you going to do it at 4 too? Yeah, why not? I think we all should. I can't not be there. Oh yeah, yeah, okay. Are you bringing your crew? Your boy Daniel from Quest will be there. Okay, I'll be there then. We'll turn

it into an event. I'm going to go to bed at 6 tonight. I know. As soon as we're done with this, me and Bruce need to go to sleep after this, and then we'll be up at four. So you were in the LAPD for 12 years, you said, right? Yeah, 12 years when I got out of the Marine Corps. And you were there during the riots and stuff like that, too? Yeah, yeah.

The riots, the OJ trial. Huge mustache back then, too, this guy. Did you? Tom Selleck mustache. Yeah, total porn cop mustache. You got to get those pictures to pop up on these videos. You get some of my, I'll send you some pictures. But he's got pictures of him bodyguarding like Clint Eastwood and some pretty cool people,

right? You've got to work for some pretty cool people. I mean, I think things happen for a reason. I did some security in the Marine Corps for the Commandant, the General. But when I got out, I worked off duty to make extra money. And the guy that mentored me, he was retiring. So I just started my own business. And once again, relationships. And ended up up getting it was a pretty big company i was doing all the sony music's work and just meeting people so i was a cop and then

working at night and it evolved what's the coolest thing you got to see in the in the fitness world you get to go to every event every arnold you know get to see a lot of power lifting a lot of strong man a lot of you know what, what's something that you remember? Anything special? Any competition or anything? I really, I mean, I've always been that whole, you know, I grew up in the Bill Kazmaier era where he was the guy. Oh, man, he was unbelievable. I got to see him, Brian Shaw, Mark Henry, Thor. I got pictures of all of them.

I mean, it's cool. I've always admired the strongman thing more than anything. Fitness is cool, but to be able to lift a thousand pounds strongman guys are unbelievable this year was insane and they're the kindest ever yeah oh yeah this year was a battle oh half thor and brian was awesome it was a five thousand pound deadlifts i think yeah so if i picked any sport i just admire strong guy i mean it's like a feat a feat of strength and it's unbelievable how i mean it takes a certain just genetics to even be oh to even be in that world there can't be there's actually how i mean it takes a certain just genetics to even be oh to even be in that world there can't be there's actually like i think one only one guy he's like considered

small and he's like 310 pounds or something right yeah there's not too many guys that are just three over 300 you know like if you're over just barely over 300 you're not cutting it not sport yeah has anything ever happened you know when you're doing security like anything when you're bodyguarding some of these people or anything? You know, I used to do a lot of the case behind the scenes with their threats and stalking cases. That was a big part of it. No one ever, like I tried to attack. Some aggressive fans when I used to take care of Mariah Carey.

We traveled a lot and there was always some weirdos that wanted to approach her. Did you learn some like hand-to-hand combat in addition to your training? Oh yeah, when I was in Marine Corps, I wrestled all all through high school and i took martial arts all through high school and right in core and yeah not not too many most it's it's more being aware and and having a plan of action what do you think nowadays with uh just some of the crazy shit that's going on like these school shootings and stuff like that you know i've heard some people say they think have an officer at each school or something like that Might help Yeah Man that's such a

Controversial thing I remember Like when we were kids You just played on a playground And had a good time And now you're worried We never had to think about it Yeah literally

It was never a thought Yeah my son's school Got a threat the other day Now you're thinking about Kids being kidnapped Or shot And it's It's a scary world

It's wild Because unfortunately I mean preventive measures Are obviously important But I don't have the answers I believe I mean obviously I'm a security person I'm very conscious about it But even if you had an armed guy world. Because unfortunately, preventive measures are obviously important, but I don't have the answers. I'm a security person. I'm very conscious about it, but even if you had an armed guy at every school, that doesn't mean someone can't steal.

We were interviewing Dominic D'Agostino the other day, University of South Florida. I didn't even think about that. It was an active shooter. Well, not an active shooter, but there was a warning. There's an armed person on campus walking around. It popped up on all the computer screens. It popped up on everybody's computer screen. So Dom got alerts on his phone.

So were you guys locked down wherever you were? Yeah, we were on lockdown. Yep. We were on lockdown for about, they said basically don't go anywhere for about an hour. It's not scary, you know? It's very scary. And it's interesting how the world's changed. Like now, and it's, God, it's even worse.

It's almost socially acceptable to hear, oh, 10 people got shot. Like 20 years ago, that'd be like a tragedy right it's uh it is a tragedy but now it's almost like oh what happened this week in the world yeah well i think there's something like 40 of them or something yeah this year alone something just you know something just wild like that um if quest nutrition you know popped around uh before uh the internet yeah you know things probably would have played out quite differently, but the product is good. And so I think when you have a good product, I get asked a lot of times about business questions and stuff, but when you make something that people enjoy, when you make something that people want, it tends to kind of grow on its own, right?

Right, yeah. I believe that too. It grows organically. I mean, listen, there's a lot of work. There's there's a lot of work there's luck there's timing i think there's everything with the business but you're right without the internet i mean we were fortunate with the internet but i think we may not be at this level without that but but because the product speaks for itself i got a hold of quest nutrition's uh instagram for for the day and uh i was popping around on there for a little bit oh no and it's just it's just loaded with tons of girls it's the opposite of you know i have 98 probably heads probably males you know looking at my stuff and this was uh this is all chicks why do you think girls have gravitated towards the

product so so well i think is it because of me or the product it's probably i don't know that's what i'm saying probably um i don't know well you know what they say this statistically women i think it's a little skewed because women shop for their men too. Right. Most. So I think the numbers are high because of that,

but I don't know. I think it's almost equal consumption. Yeah. The women probably like the, like the treats maybe a little bit more. And yeah, they like the food porn.

Everyone, I mean, everyone's cooking with it, microwaving, making cool stuff. That's been a big thing for you guys. And then even at the Quest,

when you took us through that Quest headquarters, you guys had a kitchen in there and everything like that. Oh yeah. There's a lot of creative for you guys. And then even at the Quest, when you took us through that Quest headquarters, you guys had a kitchen in there and everything like that? Oh, yeah. There's a lot of creative stuff going on. We had the show going on. You guys were big. You're the first company to really come out with a protein

that was meant to cook. Right. We had the plain flavor. Matter of fact. You had all sorts of flavors, but you could cook with them too. Of all people, I'm at the Arnold, and I'm talking to Bill Kazmaier, and he says, oh, I use your plain flavor to make waffles.

So, of course, I'm sending him a shit ton that's great yeah there he is baking with it with isn't that weird like you see bill casmeyer with an apron and he's making up some pancakes so yeah i think i we were we were early on adopters of we our protein where people were baking with and cooking cutting up our bars baking making so it's all kinds of cool stuff i think it was a few years ago when the company was really cranking really well. You guys had to switch an ingredient. Yeah, our fiber source. And I mean, that's a big deal to go ahead and do that.

Huge deal. I was going to say, I think part of the reason was the fiber source wasn't as good as you guys thought. And the accurate carb count, we discovered that through a study. The reason was the fiber source wasn't as good as you guys thought, and so you had to switch to something better. And the accurate carb count, we discovered that through a study, so we were proactive in changing it to get ahead of the curve. But most companies wouldn't do something like that. Yeah, and it was not only costly, it cost us some customers, because they think when your average consumer sees you're changing something,

they think because you're just trying to save money. They think you're being cheap. Cheap. It wasn't the fact. It actually cost more money. But we took a little hit on that. Yeah, it's hard to communicate that yeah you could put all the marketing for a little while they had it felt like they had a different like texture or something and then it went they did don't get me wrong we stumbled there was a couple things we had to

correct and we got back on course but it did it cost us some customers and we i think we regained most of them yeah daniel orego he uh explained a little bit of that to me and i thought that was uh pretty admirable you know to put the company on hold because you found out that through a study that the fiber source was registering a little differently right exactly and ron was like no this has to change yeah and then we could have done nothing and some companies still use that same fiber fiber fiber source yeah right there were bars uh detour bars and i remember uh because i used to work for wwe at the time really and i got vince mcmahon obsessed with uh detour bars they were the hot ticket and those were good yeah and so he had candy bars though he had his

whole office was detour bars really and then yeah and then a report came out that detour bars were bullshit right and then i'm in the middle of that because he's like oh thanks a lot and like he sabotaged my diet you know kind of thing and it's like i'm the one that made vince fat i guess i don't know that's funny but yeah he found out afterwards and then it was i think he still kept eating them though i think he still likes them we saturated their office with the cookies when when they launch every well now they now wwe's all quest yeah yeah you know we sent a bunch because the company's grown so much, so you guys must have been under a microscope, right? With the food labels, with the claims, and different things like that.

Oh, always. There's always someone going to scrutinize your labeling. We've been pretty fortunate. I mean, we're pretty straightforward in everything we do. But yeah, there's always someone going to look to try and challenge you. Well, from day one, people were like, there's no way that there's not carbs in this. Yeah, yeah.

We got challenged a couple times. And you got to just hit it head on. here's the facts and here's the science behind it i think the story is really cool and i i'm i'm uh you know gathering up more information from from uh some of the quest uh people oh you know as i continue to interview more of you guys you know had daniel rego on the show great guy yourself and And we're going to get to Ron and then we're going to have Shannon on the show. Wow. We decided to have Shannon on the show separately so she doesn't overrun anything that Ron's about to say.

They're both amazing people. Yeah. They're incredible people. They have their own stories. And I'm not sharing these stories because, you know, I'm trying to promote the product. I do like the product. So if people like it, then have at it. But I just think the story is really interesting. I think it's great

how you guys, you met at a gym. You said that you just saw Shannon. You're like, hey, she's pretty cute. You got on a piece of exercise equipment next to her. That's the truth. And then you just started communicating with them. Then you realized they had a bar company and uh things started to slowly slowly grow from there it just became a a really great fit and i actually got tired of doing what i was doing i was like this is like a cool company they're great and but there was nothing attractive about the company i want to reiterate we were in the hood we were in compton in just a shitty little warehouse and when i went and visited i was like are they going to be in business next month yeah no and and so it wasn't it was just their their energy their vibe they were so proud of the product they made that's what made it exciting how many people were working there at the time maybe 20 people

yeah it was a small we shared a matter of fact it was almost uncomfortable because my company i had an office with an outer office with an assistant and i came there we shared literally these little ikea desks there was like eight of us in an office just all piled up all piled up sitting you know around in a big circle i was like this is so awkward this is almost uncomfortable yeah see where it's to see where it's growing from there it's just insane oh it's incredible now you walk in and it's got its own like production studio in there and it's got you know it's got everything yeah it still doesn't have a corporate stuffy feel to it though, right? I mean, it still seems, at least with your particular job, and even just in seeing kind of Ron bounce around and stuff,

I'm sure you guys have meetings and there's some serious things that go on, but it seems like it still has its original grassroots held intact. We try and maintain that. That's important to maintain the core values and the mission that you believe in. I mean, obviously we've evolved as a company. We streamline, we have a new CEO running the operation daily, but we try and we did something.

We did, we closed down half day and went bowling after we had a town hall meeting. So we, we always want to try and celebrate cool things. Right. And you have to, that's just where we started, you know,

and you have to make it fun. Cause it's a, it's a long, it's a long journey. Yeah. Anyway, just in kind of concluding wrapping everything up here uh yeah i'm really excited to talk to the rest of the crew and and learn more about the story um before we uh before we close out you know where where can people find you uh i'm primarily on instagram so it's bruce e cardenas and you're

gonna see him with a new fitness chick every week or every day? Every day. That's the only people that are allowed to find him. So when we're saying who can find you. You know what's kind of cool? Corey Everson, who we all know six times at Olympia, got to spend some time with her. What a gem. Like the original.

I love Corey Everson. Hey, send her over here. And we're going to get her on the show. Has this job caused some ruffles with any relationships you've had? No, no, no And No, but she's an original Quest fan She knows Shannon

And it was just cool Talking to six-time Miss Olympia When we were younger She was on every We saw a poster for her And she has She was on a poster for Stopping pain

With some Some Electro Oh, at the Arnold, right? Yeah Electro stem painkiller thing Yeah, she was doing a speaking Yeah, she looked amazing with some electro-stimulator. Oh, at the Arnold, right? Yeah. Yeah. Electro-stim painkiller thing. Yeah, she was doing a speaking. Yeah, she looked amazing.

She still looks amazing. Yeah, I haven't seen her recently. Yeah, but she was at the Hall of Fame thing that Dr. Bob Goldman puts on, and Franco was there, and Bill Grant. There was a lot of old-timers there. It was cool. Really cool.

Well, that's pretty much it. Multiply your hustle, multiply your hustle multiply your muscle may all your shits be tapered i'm at mark smelly bell on instagram and twitter catch you later that's a wrap