[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hey everyone, I'm Ray Latif, and you're listening to the Top Podcast for the food and beverage industry, Taste Radio. This is episode 235, which features an interview with fitness icon, actor, and entrepreneur, Jake Steinfeld. Just a reminder to our listeners, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we'd love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. He's a pioneer of the personal fitness industry and an infomercial legend whose TV appearances have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. But Jake Steinfeld knows that getting into the beverage business is a challenge like he's never experienced before. The founder of lifestyle platform brand Body By Jake Steinfeld has extended his reach in consumer products with the launch of Don't Quit, a line of meal replacement drinks developed in partnership with Keurig Dr. Pepper and brand incubator LA Libations. In an expansive interview featured in this episode, we explored Steinfeld's background as an innovator and entrepreneur, how he identifies synergies and alignment with consumer brands, and what it takes to cultivate a winning personality. He also shared the most important lessons he's learned about business and how the partnership with Keurig Dr. Pepper and LA Libations evolved from concept into a market-ready brand. Hey folks, I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of BevNET's Taste Radio podcast, the number one podcast of the food and beverage industry. We are so happy to present this special edition of Taste Radio, Taste Radio Live, and even more honored to be with Jake Steinfeld, the fitness icon, actor, entrepreneur, and founder of Body By Jake and Don't Quit. Jake, so great to see you.
[00:01:57] Jake Steinfeld: Ray, it's great to be here, buddy. It really is nice. And I'll tell you something, that beard looks terrific. I was about to ask you, was this a quarantine beard? And you said no, but you said you let it come out a little bit. It looks good on you.
[00:02:12] Ray Latif: I appreciate that. Thank you very much. And you also told me that I have a certain resemblance to the son of... Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, because you said you're a Boston guy.
[00:02:22] Jake Steinfeld: And I said, look, if things get a little sideways above that for you, you know, Jim Davis, who owns a company called New Balance Shoes, is a dear friend and a partner of mine. His son, Chris, I mean, I'm not kidding. You guys look like twin brothers. So, you know, you never know. You might walk into the building, get put into the will. But I'm just saying.
[00:02:42] Ray Latif: Well, hopefully Jim's not on his way out anytime soon, but the New Balance headquarters are only about about a mile and a half from where I live. So, you know, it might be worth it.
[00:02:52] Jake Steinfeld: And they're gorgeous too. I call it Jimbo land and everything is built there with the Celtics. And for the Bruins and the hotel and the shopping, it's just magnificent. How are you doing, buddy?
[00:03:04] Ray Latif: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. You know, it's the third day of BevNET Live, including our beverage school session. It's been a whirlwind, but it's been great. And, you know, ending the show with you is just a great capstone to a great event. You know, speaking of beards, and you brought this up, you used to have a little bit of a beard. You can't tell that you have a beard. You always look clean shaven these days. But I did see you, I'm pretty sure, in a beard in the movie Coming To America, right?
[00:03:31] Jake Steinfeld: Well, that was a couple years ago, yes. My dear friend Jon Landis wanted me to have facial hair in that, and that was... Yeah, that was 1986. I think it was. There was never much. I thought you were Coming To say it's on my Instagram post, which I do with my sons. I have four kids. We talked about that for a couple of seconds. And my guys always say, come on, dad, let's all grow goatees. And mine comes in white now. So I just said, you know what? I'm taking it off.
[00:03:57] Ray Latif: Yeah, it wasn't white in Coming To America. And you know, there's a sequel Coming To, and I was pretty surprised they didn't see your name on the cast list for the sequel, because you had a pretty memorable role.
[00:04:08] Jake Steinfeld: There's a good reason. They called, they asked, Eddie, they asked me to reprise my role as the cab driver, except they wanted to make it an Uber driver. And I probably would have done it, but my youngest son was doing his first semester abroad in Rome last year. And I called, we tried to get our dates together. And then I just thought, you know, that role that I played as the cab driver Coming To America, that's in the Smithsonian now. And I can't, there's not a way, you know, cause I am a legend in my own shower when it comes to that kind of stuff. And no, We try to get it together. It didn't work out and quite frankly, I think there was no way I could top what I did Especially that opening line that I'm sure we can't repeat to your friends and family audience Folks listening and watching if you're not familiar with the scene go ahead and go to YouTube and look up taxi driver on in Coming To America
[00:05:06] Ray Latif: I wonder, did you prepare for that role like De Niro did in the movie Taxi Driver? Did you get old method? Did you get your TLC license and stuff?
[00:05:13] Jake Steinfeld: I got old method. I'll tell you one thing. Jon Landis, who was a client of mine who did Animal House, and actually John has always believed in me as an actor, and in the early days cast me in one of the first movies I had ever done called Into the Night with Jeff Goldblum and also Michelle Pfeiffer. It was actually Michelle's first movie. And I do me, I never took an acting lesson and don't make fun. But I've always tried to be myself and that's the best way I think in life is to be, is to be you. And I try to bring something fun to it. I also did, just so you know, I did the stunts for Lou Ferrigno for the first season of The Hulk, The Incredible Hulk. And my problem is that I smile too much. So I used to have these teeth that they gave you, like the Hulk teeth. And when I was supposed to do something, I was 19. I was 19. I was so happy that the Hulk growls. And, you know, you don't growl. There was pipe. They would put it in post or whatever they would do it. And I would always make this smile, and I'd spit my teeth out. So that job didn't last too long. But a method actor? Nah. I just do me.
[00:06:21] Ray Latif: Well, doing you has brought you quite a bit of success over the years, and I definitely want to talk about that. So with DevNet Live, everyone is up. Everyone on the team is up pretty early in the morning preparing for the event, especially when we are in person. I'm usually up around 6 a.m. for the event. I don't like getting up early, but I did read that you get up every morning at 3.45 in the morning, six days a week, and exercise for 42 minutes. Is that true? 3.45 in the morning?
[00:06:48] Jake Steinfeld: That's 100% true. I got to tell you, Ray, I'm old school when it comes to that. First of all, I'm an early morning guy. I think, you know, I like to have fun. But most importantly, that's my time. You know, those 42 minutes is not just a physical workout. It's a mental workout, a spiritual workout. And I've been doing the same kind of workout throughout my entire life. You know, I was an overweight kid. I had a bad stutter growing up. When I was 13 years old, my dad bought me a set of weights, and those weights changed my life. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, raised in Baldwin-Strong Island, Nassau County, if there are Nassau County fans out there in 516 area code. But, you know, those weights changed my life. Not only did the weights build my body, but they built my confidence and self-esteem. And, you know, when you have confidence and self-esteem, amazing to see what you can accomplish in your life. And the weights just didn't happen at once. I'm a big believer in life is about moments. And everyone has moments, whether they're great or not so great. And I remember the moment when my dad called me out into the backyard. I was in the summertime and said, he had this weight bench set up for me. And he said, come on out and let's do some bench pressing. And I looked down at my Twinkies and I said, you know, this is not something for me, dad. And he was the guy that asked you to do something once. And and that was the end of it. And come time to fall, I had never touched the weights. And he said, bring him inside and put him in the basement laundry room. Now, East Coast people know, you know, Ray, that when I grew up, The coolest thing, I'm the oldest of four. I lived in the basement, because that's where the oldest lives. And I had my room set up beautifully, man. Remember, it was the 70s. So I had my Blacklight posters up all over the place. I had Jimi Hendrix on one wall, Alice Cooper on the other wall. I was very challenged. And I had my Blacklight posters and Blacklight. Oh my gosh, it was very cool. I tell you, the room was incredible. And whatever it was, this one night, I was never much of a student in school. I loved the social life in school, had a lot of friends, wasn't all that great in school. And trying to do my homework, and the teacher would say, you know, to highlight all the important things, and I found myself highlighting everything, right? And whatever that moment was, I glanced outside of my door, and there was the laundry room, and there was this barbell sticking out as it stuck out for months. And for whatever it was that moment, I picked it up, walked out, picked it up, brought it into my bedroom, put the weights on top of this ottoman of mine, put this little skinny mirror on top of the ottoman. I also used to love to listen to Frank Sinatra's I Did It My Way. And at the end of Frank's album, there's like this 15 seconds of wild applause for Frank. So what I did was, is I cued up the 15 seconds, I put it on the cans, right, my little headset, Oh, by the way, let me tell you what I look like. I had this Afro, right? With this yes, no mustache. I had braces, gets better. And I had this tank top on and I had my stomach hanging over my underpants. And I'm looking in the mirror. And I queued up the applause for Frank, and I started doing my bicep curls. And I started to visualize Jake Steinfeld doing his bicep curls in front of 15,000 screaming fans at Madison Square Garden. And that's where it began, man. And it was that moment that I started standing up a little bit straighter. That confidence came to me, that self-esteem. I started looking in the mirror and liking what I saw. And I had this dream immediately to become Mr. America. As the oldest in my family, I was the first one to go to college. So it was a big deal. My mom and dad never went to school. Their parents never went to school. I went to college upstate New York. You know Cornell University? Sure, yeah. I went to Cortland down the street. fine school, but at upstate New York, if you if you're familiar, it snows from the second you get to school and not too conducive to walk around in your gold lamé posing trunks in 18 inches of snow. And, you know, this is important. Everybody, all of us, everyone is watching our families, our kids. We all have dreams. Those dreams never leave us. And sometimes when you try to express a dream to someone, You're kind of careful about it because you don't know who you you know, the person is Coming To be positive or negative and sometimes it's the people closest to you who seem to be the most Negative and what I mean by that is maybe it's your parents. They don't want to see you get hurt. So They try to convince you to do something else or friends Don't want to see you become successful because they believe well if ray is successful That means I can't be successful, you know And I'm a big believer in the whole idea the upward spiral of success you hang around with successful people success happens So this moment, I'm upstate New York. My mom, who calls every day to check in on how Poli Sci is doing, English is doing. And I finally got up enough courage, Ray, and I said, Mom, I'm Coming To go to California to become a bodybuilder. Silence on the phone. Herbie, my dad, pick up the phone and talk to your kid. I'm putting my head in the oven. And I will never forget that bus ride from upstate New York. to Baltimore, Long Island, 516 area code, felt like I was Coming To the moon. And I finally sat down with my parents, and they were pretty cool. The fact that they said, go pursue your dream. I always have your bedroom here. I had a girlfriend. My friends all said, you're never Coming To make it. You'll be back in six months. And I made the trek summer 1977, pursued that dream. And I found that very quickly, you know, I read all the muscle magazines and everybody said, eat 18 eggs and 24 chickens a day. And you too could become Mr. America. Well, I clucked a lot, Ray. I didn't become Mr. America because nobody ever talked about steroids. And back then I was 18 years old. I was in Los Angeles all by myself. with this dream to become Mr. America. And very quickly, I understood. I entered the Mr. Southern California contest. I came in second place. Guy that beat me was on steroids. And I had to make a decision. And once again, I always go back to the dad thing, because I'm a dad, right? I have four great kids. My daughter is 28. Her name is Morgan. And Nick is 26. Zach is 21. And Luke is 19. And my wife, Tracy, and I actually, Friday, will be married 32 years.
[00:13:44] Ray Latif: Congratulations.
[00:13:45] Jake Steinfeld: Thank you. We try to work hard on parenting together. But we've always talked to our kids about decision making. And I've always said, if you have to think about something too long, probably something you shouldn't be doing. And for me, it was that moment again, remember life's about moments. And for whatever the reason was, and I'll give you the reason why I didn't put a needle in my own, but TCMO is because I was afraid and that was really it. And that decision was one of the defining moments in my life because I made a decision not to become a professional bodybuilder because I couldn't achieve a professional status. If you didn't take steroids, it's common knowledge today. But I didn't leave L.A. A, because in my own heart and my mind, I love working out. I love what it did for me. I love how I felt. But I also, in the back of my mind, my friends were telling me, Jay, you're Coming To be back in six months. And I said, I didn't want to go back to New York. In my mind, a loser. So I stayed.
[00:14:47] Ray Latif: So, you know, in terms of these moments, you mentioned, you know, life is about moments. And it seems like for you in general, life is also about routine and repetition, getting up at 345 in the morning, 42 minutes of work or exercise. And these moments of repetition and routine helped you become who you are today. And I think it's the author Malcolm Gladwell talked about 10,000 hours of practice can make you an expert in something. You know, is that the case for you? Is it as much about those individual moments as it is as much as it is, you know, repeating those moments and repeating them well? You know, Ray, that's excellent, man. I look at it
[00:15:30] Jake Steinfeld: The same, but a little different, different, but the same. I'm a big believer in repetitions. You know, in the gym, it's all about reps, right? And in my life today, I'm all about 100 rep sets. So in my workout, in my routine, I do a 42-minute routine. Like I said, I split the body up. The only way I know what day it is is what body part I'm working. Today's Wednesday, shoulders and legs. That's how it's been since I'm 14 years old. I will say this though, the repetition, everything that I do has repetition written all over it. So whether I'm in the gym, you name it, the way I have my desk set up, the way I do my meetings, in the gym in the morning, every rep that I do, I visualize. Although I'm getting a physical workout and a cardio workout, I visualize my day. So every set that I do, every rep that I do, I accomplish whatever it is I have on my, I'm a big yellow pad guy, old school. You know, I know everything that I have going on. I have yellow pads everywhere, but everything is planned until it isn't planned. But my 42 minutes in the morning to get back to that is very structured. So when I finished those 42 minutes, not only did I get my cardio in, not only did I get my muscular workout in, I visualized my day.
[00:16:51] Ray Latif: What do you mean when you say everything is planned until it's not planned? What are those moments that are not planned? Because it seems like that routine and that structure, again, are so critical to who you are as an entrepreneur, you know, who you are in terms of your personal life. Are things unplanned in your life? And if they are, you know, how do you, I guess, navigate those moments?
[00:17:14] Jake Steinfeld: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I try to have things as planned out as possible. I mean, look, I went to three months of college. So I did a book a number of few years back called I've seen a lot of famous people naked and they got nothing on you. And it was business secrets from a street smart entrepreneur where I taught you how to put together a street smart business plan. I didn't go to Wharton. I didn't go to these schools. I also believe too that, you know, the smarter you are, the more paralyzed you get, When it comes to business, when it comes to thinking outside the box, because yeah, granted, man, there's a million reasons why something isn't Coming To work. And somebody with the C average is Coming To take that shot where sometimes somebody who's so schooled and has always gotten those A's might not take that shot. So for me, There is no plan. My plan consists of, I'm sorry, I keep going back to this. My plan consists of what I put down on my yellow pad. That's my plan. I always thought about reaching out and saying, what is my ultimate goal? What is your ultimate goal? And that changes over the course of time. For me, I thought that being on the cover of a magazine would be it. If I was on the cover of a fitness magazine, I'm going back to New York, a winner, and that's it. Done. Bang. It's over. But then I immediately said, OK, once that cover happened, I said, how can I parlay this into something else? And for me, what happened, very honestly, Ray, right place, right time, right moment, passion leads. Passion leads and everything else follows and what I mean by that is remember I love working out I love what it did for me. I was afraid to take steroids. So the mr America thing was that door closed. I closed it and I stayed in LA I don't know what I was gonna do But I was in the right place at the right time and I'm sitting at this apartment complex in Studio City, California. I Catch and raise, which is what every good muscle head does. You know, you work out in the morning, catch and raise during the day, and you bounce in a bar at night. That was what it was. I was living a dream, man. I was in LA, all right? I'm Coming To Long Island. As I said, when I came to this town, the dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, meaning Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, all the big bodybuilders. The magazines came to life for me. But I also learned how to be and how not to be. I became a good listener and a good watcher of people. And I think Coming To the East Coast, as you know, we all have street smarts. And that really was very keen for me.
[00:19:53] Ray Latif: You have to have a lot of street smarts to be a bouncer. Was being a bouncer, Natalie, tell me a little bit about that, because that's, I feel like back when you were doing that job, it was probably a little less rough than it might be these days, or is it the other way around?
[00:20:08] Jake Steinfeld: Well, you know, I don't know what it's like today, but back when I back when I did it, come sit on my lap, Ray, I'll tell you a story. Well, I bounced in a very cool disco here in L.A. and this is when, you know, Saturday Night Fever had just, you know, happened and everybody was trying to do John Travolta and it was fun. You met a lot of people and It actually was better for me because think about it. You're Coming To go to the bar, the disco anyway with your buddies. It's a whole lot better working there as opposed to four of us going out and trying to talk to girls. You know, it's like four animals, you know, jumping all over each other. And it just worked out so much better. You have to be smarter. You have to figure out certain ways. And the bouncing the bar was a was a fun, fun way for me to make some money, meet a lot of great people. And it was a moment, you know, and that was one of those things. It's about the stories that you come up with. And for me, here I was, because a lot of guys in the gym bounced in bars, too. And I said, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I'm hanging out at the apartment complex. And literally one of these moments, this actress who I had known from the apartment complex, I've seen her outside a bunch, came up to me and said, you know, I see you out here all the time, Jake. And I'm kind of wondering, I've got this Club Med commercial I'm doing, and I have to wear a bikini. And I'm wondering if you can kind of come up with a workout for me. And I have to do this commercial in about six weeks. And I thought, uh, sure. Yeah. Okay. She goes, listen, I like you, but I don't want to look like you. I said, I got it. I got to remember that. So this is 1979. And for all the women who are listening to us now back then, you know, women were very intimidated by using weights. So they thought they were Coming To get big muscles. So what I thought was okay, I could come up with something and she said, how much is the workouts Coming To cost? And I said, just give me gas money for my 1977 white Camaro with Jake 77 on the license plate. Always kept a very low profile. Very important entrepreneur. Note one.
[00:22:21] Ray Latif: Why Jake 77 just for the year?
[00:22:24] Jake Steinfeld: It's what you know what it was. You know, honestly, it was my it was a number that I had in lacrosse in high school. And I was 77. So I used to sign the buses, Jake 77. Mom, if you're watching, I'm sorry, I did that. I told you I didn't. But I did that day. And that's what I had on my license plate. And she says, How much is it Coming To cost? I said, Well, just give me gas money. you know, for my 1977 white Camaro. And she said, could you do the workout? My friend is at a friend's house. And would you mind doing the workout over there? And I said, absolutely. No problem. Give me the address, Beverly Hills address. I pull up. And if you weren't on the cover of Musclehead Digest, Ray, I didn't know who you were. Guy answers the door. Turns out to be Francis Ford Coppola. Wow. And I just thought, hey, this guy could use a workout too. And it was like, well, one of those moments where this gal, I started training her and I came up with this 30 minute routine. It was just a 30 minute workout. Cause look, I love Coming To the gym, but I never hung around the gym. I got the workout in and I got out. And I thought, OK, she looks like she's got an A-type personality. She has a mission. She needs to wear this bikini. I'm Coming To see if I can help her. Now, she looked great, by the way, to begin with. She just needed the confidence to feel good in it, right? And that's what exercise does for you, right? It gives you not only does it make you healthier, but it gives you confidence. And they started Coming To parties. And this is crazy, right? This is 1980, 1979, 1980. And people started saying, you look great. What are you doing? I said, this guy Jake. comes to my house. He's got a broomstick, a towel and a chair. Cause I, all I use was household items. That's all it was a broomstick, but twists right for oblique work, a chair, you can do dips and pushups towel. Right. All I was able to do right is if I'm pulling down on a towel and I'm saying to you, right, you pull up, we do bicep curls, resistance training. Right. And I kept the workout fun and right to the point. And they would say, wow, what a great idea. What's his phone number? And I will tell you this. I had this one room apartment in Studio City, California here. And every day I would start getting phone calls. Now, the great thing about what Hollywood is about is that if you can't get ahold of somebody, they seem to want you more. And I never listed my phone number because there were no cell phones, right? We didn't have cell phones back then. So you had, if you moved, you had to list your phone number. And I never listed my phone number. And as I said, one thing about Hollywood is if you're good and people want to get ahold of you and they can't, they seem to want you more. And it became this mystique of who is this guy? You got to get him.
[00:25:23] Ray Latif: He's Jake Steinfeld. The funny thing about what you're doing, I mean, like, I'm sure I'm just enthralled by what you're saying, and I'm sure our audience is as well. And, you know, I'm sure you've heard this before. Your personality and your trauma is infectious. I mean, you have this just, like, great presence about yourself. You have an aura going on, Jake, right in front of my eyes. How much of that, I mean, contributed? Obviously, you were in great shape. Obviously, you knew how to train people, you know, even with a broomstick, a towel and chair. I have a broomstick, a towel and chair here at my house, but I don't think I could make it work for me. But I mean, like, isn't it your personality that really helped you to convince people that, you know, you could be a trainer to the stars, so to speak, and that you could build a business as you did? You know direct-to-consumer and this this fitness empire. I mean, I guess you know more to the point How much of your charm do you attribute to your success?
[00:26:17] Jake Steinfeld: I don't know. What do you tell me that? Well, listen, I will tell you this and I appreciate you saying that's very sweet of you, man But I do when when I have spoken and when I talk to people who want to become I was the first guy to do personal fitness training and made it an occupation. I mean, with people like Steven Spielberg, and Harrison Ford, and Priscilla Presley, and Bette Midler, and Cher, and Warren Beatty, and Barbra Streisand, and people like this. And I tell you those names only because here I was at 19 and 20 years old from Long Island. And now I'm in LA. And now I'm traveling with these folks. And I learned the greatest lesson of all time, Ray, is that they're no different than us. The only difference is they had a dream and they never quit on their dream And they never took no for an answer and you know that gave me all the incentive in the world to say to myself Well, wait a second. I might never direct et2 But i'm gonna have my own success And I was able to parlay that famous by association into videos and books and television shows and When I do, when I speak and I do a lot, it is about personality. I mean, look, a push-up is a push-up, a dip is a dip, and a chair is a chair. Life's about moments. And that moment happened for me. And what I try to express to everybody who's listening and watching now, whatever your dream is, whatever your dreams are, you got to have a plan, but you have to be ready to have options on that plan. I love working out. The bodybuilding thing didn't happen for me. I could have easily have said, you know what, Ray? I didn't do it, buddy. I'm Coming To go back to New York and go back to school. And God bless. I mean, you know, every body is very different. But it worked out for me. I mean, everything that I've been able to do revolves around three things. Hope, health, and family. Those three things are the most important things to me. And I've built my life around that.
[00:28:14] Ray Latif: Where does luck fit in? Because you mentioned a few times, right place, right time. And in our industry, that happens a lot. A lot of people say, you know, well, a big part of the reason I was successful in this industry is because I was lucky. And people say, okay, well, luck is the intersection of timing and preparedness. But do you consider yourself lucky or do you consider yourself someone who has made his own luck?
[00:28:38] Jake Steinfeld: I think a little bit of both. Listen, when you're talking about your industry, which now I'm a guest in, which has been awesome, but I have to tell you.
[00:28:45] Ray Latif: You're knee deep in this industry. There's no getting out of this, Jake. You're a beverage entrepreneur for life.
[00:28:50] Jake Steinfeld: Well, I'm telling you something right now. You talk about moments, and if it wasn't for me having an opportunity to meet a guy like Danny Stepper at a company called LA Libations, I definitely wouldn't be sitting here talking to you right now. You know where I went and sat down with a guy like Danny who I call d-step by the way That's from now on the industry needs to address him as d-step sometimes big d-step, but I've shortened it to d-step So I'm just telling you and that's what by the way, I've done that my whole life So I've always given like Spielberg his wheels Harrison his age I give people nicknames and I and I've done it since I was little and I did it when I was little because I had a bad stutter and if I couldn't say someone's name if there was with a D or a B or or a T I would have a stutter with that so I came up with a nickname for it and I Brought that all the way through and it if you make people feel warm and comfortable You can do lots and lots of things, you know You create a friendship and I'm a big believer in doing that up front first so to have an opportunity to to sit down with a guy like D-Step, Danny Stepper, Eli Bations, I was with him because I was lucky. I was an early investor in a company called Zico, Coconut Water, and I was an investor in a spirits company called Avion Tequila, where I had a home in Nantucket and my friend, Kenny Dichter, who had a company called Marquee Jet, and now he has Wheels Up. Doug Ellen created a show called Entourage, and those guys were at my house. And they were coming up with a job for Turtle, one of the characters on the show Entourage, if you're familiar. And they came up with the idea of they should have a tequila company. They named it Avion, which means wings, which was after Marquis Jet. And they just did it at my house. And I got stuck. And it worked. And people started thinking I knew what I was doing in the beverage business because there was a nice exit to Zico as well. And I started investing a little bit. And I was put together with D-Step from some great folks at Coca-Cola, who've been great to me in the foundation side. I think you know I'm actually chair of the National Foundation for Governance Fitness Councils. And Coca-Cola has been an incredible partner and great folks there. Pete Perez is a champion of all champions. And I got to meet Danny on a completely other thing we were talking about. I was helping my brother-in-law's son out. He had a sparkling water. And I got involved in another spirits company. And I had both CEOs ready to go. I go to El Segundo, which is right down the road from me. I meet D-Step for the first time. He's dressed in all black, very Hollywood, I have to tell you, and looking very, you know, very producer-like.
[00:31:47] Ray Latif: He is a producer as well. So, I mean, you know, if you're, you got to look the part.
[00:31:52] Jake Steinfeld: I could, I could talk for another two and a half hours just about him, seriously. He is, he is, which I'll get to in a second, but we sat down And I said, look, I have these two things. One is a sparkling water. And he says, Barry, the entry is too easy. I'm not very interested. And I go, OK, that's one. I go, I got something in the spirits side of things. He goes, we don't really invest in spirits. I go, OK, that's OK. I'm Coming To ask you a question. And I was Coming To bring this up. When you have a one o'clock meeting with somebody, I'm just saying, right? If it's one o'clock, if you're Coming To my office for one o'clock, what would you expect? What? What are you thinking? Lunch?
[00:32:34] Ray Latif: First of all, I know that you are about punctuality. You're big into punctuality so that I know you would want someone to be there at 12.59.
[00:32:42] Jake Steinfeld: Well, 100%. Let's take that for granted. We're there on time. It's like, hey, it's one o'clock, lunch. No, no lunch. He wants me to test every liquid that he has in the building. So by the way, as he say no to me, I drunk more liquid and I've got no salad, no nothing. I've got to go to the bathroom. There's like, this is not working out. And I just said to him, I said, well, look, you don't want any of what I'm talking about. And you got no lunch. So nice to meet you. And it was kind of fun. And he said, no, no, no. We should hang out for a couple of minutes. And truly, this happened. You talk about life is about moments. And this is really how all this happened with Don't Quit. I started telling the story, stories like I've told you. And I had mentioned to him that I got cut from my eighth grade basketball team. And a friend, gave me a poem called don't quit. True story. And I mean, I'm 14 years old. I wasn't feeling too proud of myself because I a little embarrassing because it was the first time I put myself out there. And we all know that those kind of times in your lives, those moments. And I thought I was a great basketball player, man, because, you know, my mom said, honey, you're a great basketball player. And, you know, and I went out for the team and I got cut and This friend gave me a poem called Don't Quit, and it changed my life.
[00:34:05] Ray Latif: It certainly seems like it. I mean, you've got the sign right behind you. That's a great sign, by the way. I think everyone, every entrepreneur needs that on their desk, or at least, you know, behind their desk. This is a reminder. I mean, going back to Danny, you know, I, of course, I know Danny, a lot of people in the beverage industry do. Great guy. You know, I'm sure you've met other business people in the past before who have said, hey, you know, I can help you with this idea. I can work with you to put your name on a consumer product or get you into this business. You know, what was it about Danny and people that you actually did align with that you respected and made you feel comfortable with moving forward with them?
[00:34:44] Jake Steinfeld: Ray, you're being the host. I was telling a great story, and you're like, I got it. Come on, man. What's going on here?
[00:34:50] Ray Latif: What's happening? Sorry, sorry.
[00:34:51] Jake Steinfeld: I know. You're pumped up, too. That's OK. That's OK. But really, so let me just take it back for a second. So I get this poem, Don't Quit. And I'll give you the last two lines. Stick to the fight when your heart is tit. It's when things seem worse that you must not quit. And in 1981, I actually trademarked the words, don't quit. And I kept them sacred for all these years. I mean, I fold up all the big brands and I've now I've used don't quit as monikers of a sign off, which I've always on every show. I've done subtitles of books, but never. I never felt those two words. Any product that I ever did, and I've been very blessed in the infomercial space and books and videos have had great success to call something just don't quit. And I told the step, We're sitting there and I go, I own the trademark to the words, don't quit. And here's what happens. He starts looking out the window and he's wiggling up a storm and he says, dude, are you familiar with the brands insure and boost? And I said, I've seen commercials for him. Yeah, sure. He says. Do you understand the adult nutrition category? Do you understand how big that category is? Have you ever seen the ingredient panel on Boost and Ensure? They're terrible. They're poison. When you look at that stuff, my mother, I didn't even know she was drinking this. I saw it in her refrigerator. It was in the back of the fridge. And she said, this is Dee's telling me the story. She was embarrassed to show people that she was because god forbid it's for people who who are sick or a doctor recommends this It's a four billion dollar category. We've been working on formulations for years on this. We need to do this together Now, let me just take a timeout Because two seconds ago we were done, right? I mean he didn't want what I had there was no lunch and I had to go to the bathroom and And we immediately connected. His passion hit me. And I will say this because we don't have 10 hours here. I met a lot of people to answer your question. I've been very blessed in my life. Some of the greatest, most successful people in Hollywood and business. I've not only become friends with, but business partners with. DSTEP is truly what you think of Steve Jobs, what Steve Jobs did in technology and what he did in Silicon Valley. There's a guy, Nelson Gundo, and I know you said a lot of people know him. He is a very special guy. He knows this world. and knows it from so many different angles and has so many great relationships. And he and I went on this adventure to basically create a better for you, like the world needs another nutrition shake, we say, no, but it just needs the best one. And we basically started to meet with, and I said to him, I said, listen, I'm not Coming To go kind of driving around pitching this thing. You know, if you're the guy who you say you are, Then uh, we should talk to who you think the right people to be with but I will tell you this We had an opportunity. I had an opportunity to meet this guy Bob gamcord who's the ceo of kdp I've been in business for a long 42 years man. I've been doing what i've been doing. I've never met a guy like this Uh, first of all, it's a jersey guy. So I love him already. We hit it off He went to bucknell university. His son went to bucknell. My son was at bucknell. So right off the bat He came into LA, we met, you know, no pomp and circumstance, no cavalcade of entourages of people. He rolled in by himself. We spoke. I just felt his passion. I told him, I'm not putting my name on this thing. This is Coming To be me. And everything that I've done in my life, Ray, I don't endorse products. I've never endorsed anything. They've been my companies and I've been very successful and I failed miserably, you know. But the one thing I do know in life is that if I'm Coming To fail, I want to be the guy driving the car off the cliff. Not me sitting next to somebody taking me off the class and Bob Gamcord and and the gang at KDP Derek Hopkins and all his team Matt Ellen have been so supportive during this Incredible adventure already. I mean, we're a four and a half month old little baby with don't quit So just to get to where we are a lot of people think what's going on. Wait, wait, what's he talking about? So we launched Don't Quit, and I've been kind of sipping this. It's the first daily complete nutrition shake. Here it is, guys, if you see it. Just visualize yourself opening up the fridge in the morning and seeing those two words. Now, that's orangical. That's my favorite flavor. But it's 26 vitamins and minerals, 10 grams of protein, our original flavor. First clean label, so there's no soy, no corn, no wheat, no artificial flavors. Gluten-free, kosher, and they taste great. Chocolate, vanilla, chai tea, and orangesicle. And then we wanted to try something, because we wanted to stay focused on the adult nutrition category, which we believe we can really shake up. And it's really starting to happen. But we wanted to try something with a 30-gram protein, because protein is all the rage. And we launched our max version. And this is chocolate. This is our bestseller, which is 30 grams of protein. and one gram of sugar, chocolate and vanilla. And it's been unbelievable. Interesting to launch a product at any time, launch in a pandemic, and launch during the holidays. I challenge you on that one, Ray.
[00:40:33] Ray Latif: That's a really tough ask. I'm sure it's also a really tough ask for someone who has never been in the beverage industry to say, okay, get up to speed as quickly as you can. How did you, and I mean, you know, were you involved in the formulation, choosing the flavors, choosing the amount of protein in this product too? Did you really get your hands dirty, so to speak, in terms of, you know, getting this thing to market?
[00:40:54] Jake Steinfeld: Thank you for asking that. Every step of the way, we were testing and tasting and looking and doing, and as everything evolves, no different than in any of our lives in any business. This is great packaging, but our packaging is Coming To evolve again. We're Coming To unveil a new version of our packaging very shortly, but I've been involved in every step of the way. And how I learned it? Big D step, man. And Bob Gamport. I mean, as I said, Bob is taking the time with me. We have great chats on a Saturday. You don't get that a lot. To me, it's about a relationship, right? Remember, hope, health, and family. And it's a passion for me. And what I do know is this, is that if you can help somebody and make somebody else feel good about themselves, good things are Coming To happen. And if you're doing things just for the money, it's usually short dough. And short dough ends. And I feel confident, more and more confident every day. And by the way, man, we get punched in the nose 200 times a day. And this is, as I said, Your industry retail is very interesting to me because I came from the direct to consumer world I was one of the early guys in the infomercial space doing fitness infomercials where we knew I did a show I'm looking right into the camera and I visualized I was talking to ray and his wife And it was a saturday night. You had just eaten a big italian dinner And you're flipping around because you know, the internet wasn't very prevalent back then and you landed on hey, that's Body By jake Hey, he's a pretty good guy. What's he talking about tonight? And I was able to convince you to take the shot because you can't buy trust in life and you can't buy authentic. And that's what we wanted to come up with with Don't Quit, which was something that you can trust and something that was authentic. And the only way that we knew how to do that was to partner with, fortunately, as you said, I got lucky. I was in the right place at the right time. I met D-Step. D-Step got me to Bob Gamcourt. And we now have a foundation to succeed. Is it Coming To be easy? Nah. But you know what? It was easy, man. You know, like your mom and dad would say, everybody would do it.
[00:43:15] Ray Latif: Now, I know in our coverage of the launch of Don't Quit, you guys talked about the potential to build a platform, a beverage platform for the brand. And I'm kind of curious, I guess it's a tangent, you know, you brought a sparkling water idea to Danny and you brought an alcoholic beverage idea to Danny. Can we expect to see Don't Quit getting into those particular? Although I don't know if you'd want to have an alcoholic beverage called Don't Quit. No.
[00:43:40] Jake Steinfeld: No, and you want to stay away from tobacco. But we have some great, some terrific things that we're already working on, on the food and beverage side. And obviously, once again, you can have ideas, but it's also about relationships. And over the 42 years, I've been able to build friendships in a lot of different areas. In the packaged goods world, we're talking about cereals and bars. We're looking at energy. We have some formulations already for that, which is, think about it, in the 50 plus crowd, I'm 62 years old now, right? If we were hanging out, Ray, if we were hanging out and when we were little kids and said, I said, Ray, how old's your dad? You said 62. I go, man, that's an old guy. But today, you know, it's I feel like i'm 21 And there's lots of people like me million, you know, there are over 110 million americans over the age of 50 years old today And they have dispendable income that want to be healthy that strive to be healthy And especially right now. I made a little bit of a crack. I didn't mean to about a pandemic and launching We had no idea none of us did But people are more concerned than ever about their health and I've done an op-ed piece about fitness is a vaccine and nutrition is so important and what you're putting into your body is so important that we have a great opportunity here to embrace not only the 50 plus because interestingly enough the marketing that we've done with hyper local with a great guy down in Fort Lauderdale his name is Jordan Zimmerman with the Zimmerman agency, I call him OJZ, the original Jay-Z, who's dynamite. He has something that they do call hyperlocal media marketing and advertising. They can surgically target people. It's amazing what has happened today in the world of marketing, how you can target a consumer to a person. But we're seeing that our audience is not just a 50 plus as a matter of fact 55 of our audience Is 25 to 45? I didn't I had no idea right? I had no idea But the max version right there it is open that fridge in the morning and see those two words don't quit But on max version, which is 30 grams of protein protein is really the rage now. It's Great. And there's one gram of sugar and the sugar in our original, just so you know, is pure cane sugar. So there's no beet sugar. It's as good as sugar could be. But a lot of people over the age of 50 need to keep weight on. But we've seen such a wide variety of demographic for the product. But I've enjoyed that with all of my fitness products where 52 percent female, 48 percent male.
[00:46:39] Ray Latif: You, in addition to being a pioneer of the fitness industry, did some amazing things in direct-to-consumer marketing. And today, you know, it seems like every beverage company, every food company wants to create a direct-to-consumer platform and sell right to that consumer, no middleman, and sell as much as they can. You know, what is your direct-to-consumer strategy for Don't Quit? And are there any parallels to what you're doing with this product and this brand to what you have done in the past?
[00:47:09] Jake Steinfeld: Absolutely. You know, when I look at the landscape in the beverage industry or in the consumer packaged goods world that, you know, obviously great brands like Walmart and Kroger and terrific people, you know, at Ralphs and King Super and Albertson's Safeway and Sam's everywhere. You know, I love that. I'm learning to love that. But I love that that opportunity to talk directly to you and having that ability now through lots of different channels You look at what KDP has done with their coffee, right? And they've done an incredible job selling those K-cups, right? And they have a subscription. We have set up a subscription. My whole thing is I want to be able to make it as simple and convenient and as affordable for your family and your nutrition to make you healthy. That's my goal. If you don't have to go to the store, great. And we were talking to their e-commerce guys. Bob got us through their e-commerce team. And they've done an incredible job of selling coffee. The thing I learned, which I was so excited about at first, I'm going, oh, my gosh, we've got such a small product, right? It's a six-pack or a 12-pack. This is Coming To be awesome, man. I'm so used to selling hard, good fitness equipment. You learn that liquid is dense. And the shipping and handling becomes a challenge, especially on a product that costs $7.99 or $8.99. So we're working through that. And we have a couple of interesting things that we're Coming To be doing. We have a don't quit blender. that we're Coming To be Coming To with, that when people sign up for a subscription, because we have, I mean, people are sending us recipes now, how they consume Don't Quit, how they consume their morning, you know, afternoon beverages here. And what they're doing with Don't Quit has been incredible. You know, so we're stacking up those recipes, putting them up on don'tquit.com, which has been great. But we really are pushing, right? to do a direct-to-consumer play here. Because I believe that we can do it, and I'm excited to do it. And with all of these tools, with social media, makes it even more interesting than back in the day when you were just buying cable, broadcast, and satellite.
[00:49:31] Ray Latif: Do you expect to ever do an infomercial for Don't Quit, whether it be on broadcast television or on a social or digital site?
[00:49:39] Jake Steinfeld: Yes. I do. We did our first commercial, which introduced the product. And interestingly enough, Andrew Panay, great film producer. They do also the T-Mobile commercials, the Microsoft commercial, did our commercial for Don't Quit, a school friend of D-Step. And that's how we got a chance to meet Andrew Panay. He was another genius. we see a great opportunity. And this is what we're talking about, because I do believe everything really is Coming To that direct the consumer model. And it's like, hey, wait a second, I've been doing this since 93. This is what all business should be. And to embrace, obviously, all the retailers and everything, but to give the consumer an opportunity, you know, give them more knowledge. So when they do make that choice, if they do want to go in, as they do a lot of times, Be able to purchase something with knowledge. That's what I want to make sure because we know what we have with don't quit Is the first clean label nutrition shake line and we want to tout that and we want to show it off We can't do that today during a pandemic Meaning normally we would be in a walmart today or a kroger as we are and we'd be doing sampling You know any new product needs to sample Could you imagine if I crack one of these open and we're at Walmart together and I said, here, sir, you want to try one? You're Coming To hit me.
[00:51:05] Ray Latif: Now, Jake, we have like two minutes left. So I know you have some big news that you want to share. And I know it's really helpful when you do have a partner on your side going beyond direct-to-consumer, getting those products, getting those cases into the stores. When are we Coming To see Don't Quit on KDP Trucks?
[00:51:22] Jake Steinfeld: Well, man, D-Step must have told you something because I didn't know if I was Coming To say it, but now we're Coming To say, yes, this is really exciting. We are Coming To be launching first quarter 2021. Don't quit 12-ounce bottles on the KDP trucks. And it's our max version. It's Coming To be Insane. The packaging is incredible. This ability to be on the trucks is Coming To be super exciting. And I think this is a big differentiator for us as a brand as we play in the adult nutrition category. But also, you know, when I talked to our team, we said, I don't like the word adult nutrition. You know, it's not it's like silver sneakers. You know, you don't feel that way. So you're not Coming To go to that. I want to create something new that's a hybrid between active nutrition and adult nutrition, which is what we are. But at the end of the day, we're Coming To be on those trucks. And as I said, tip of the cap to Bob Gamcord and the team. I could not do this without their support. And D-STEP has been an incredible part of it. I'm learning every day. And I'm in supermarkets. It's terrible to have a mask on, but it's kind of fun. I have a hat and I walk up to people as they pick up their six pack and don't quit. And I go, you're Coming To love that. They look at me kind of weird, but it's fun to see.
[00:52:46] Ray Latif: I'm sure it is. And, you know, you mentioned a tip of the cap to Danny Stepper and Bob Gamgort. Well, I've got to give a tip of the cap to you, Jake. This has been such a fun and fantastic interview. I'm sure our viewers and our listeners at home loved it. Thank you so, so much for taking the time to be with me today. Good luck with everything going forward with Don't Quit. It seems like you're off to an amazing start. Can't wait to see what 2021 holds.
[00:53:08] Jake Steinfeld: Ray, thanks a million, buddy. You keep up the great work.
[00:53:11] Ray Latif: God bless. Don't quit. Thank you so much. And thank you all viewers once again. This brings us to the end of Evident Live Winter 2020. It's been an experience. Hopefully we'll see you again in person really soon. That brings us to the end of episode 235. Thank you so much for listening. And thanks to our guest, Jake Steinfeld. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
