 Obviously, Ron Schartank, we have to cover it. At what point were you like, this could be a good idea for us? You know, I applied four times. Yeah. Oh, wow. So, I did a lot of... Pretty early on, or did you wait? Yeah, first year in business, I applied. Or we, it was me. I had a previous co-founder, Keith, who's no longer with the company. So, I met him at that food company that I worked at. So, he left two years in. But we applied in LA. We applied in Salt Lake City. We applied in San Francisco. And then, I'm like, man, I've done three and I've been rejected all three times. And then in 2019, they were doing an audition at the casino. I think Pachanga. Okay. So, you know, they have these like open ballrooms where they do like all the auditions and then there's like a line, kind of like American Idol-ish. And so, I'm like, okay, fourth time, not third time, fourth time's a charm for the audition. And on top of that, I used to, you know, on the side, play poker, you know, Texas hold them. So, I'm like, and it's at a casino. It's perfect. You know, I'll feel comfortable there. So, like, ten years ago, I used to play poker like at night after working at insurance, just to get my mind off of insurance. Yeah, that makes sense. So, for this audition, was it essentially like you had to give the full pitch that you would give on the show in this room? I'm guessing the sharks were not there. It was probably some producers or whoever. It was like not even a producer. It was like people that are just hired to do auditions, to handle the auditions. Like casting, casting producers of sorts. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's funny. I don't know any of the entertainment terms. And I've lived in LA my entire life. Yeah. I used to work in casting for other reality shows. So, there was a lot of crossover with Shark Tank. But, yeah, I know that world fairly intimately. So, like, you had to do that full pitch presentation then for them. Yeah, it was like a five minute pitch. The first three times I was very, like, nervous. And it's always good just like be yourself. You know, I mean, I know it sounds totally cliched, but like just don't try to impress someone. Don't try to, like, speak a certain way or, like, puff your chest up. You freaking be yourself, man. And so, like, I went in there and I'm like, I'm going to do an Einstein accent. And I actually went on, it's actually not easy to find clips of him talking. I can't picture his voice. Like it's mostly him, like, riding a bike or, so I found clips of him talking. You know, he's like, hello, it's pure genius, you know. And so, I did that in the audition. I said, I cannot remember what to say right now. Wait a minute. Let me drink my genius. And I drink it. Ah, now I know what to say. And I did so well that the casting agent actually thought I forgot my lines. It was part of my pitch. I can't remember what I'm saying. Let me drink genius juice. She actually thought I forgot what I was going to say. That's so good. That made it even better. So it was hilarious. Yeah. And I got a callback and then the taping was in 2019. And from there we aired in 2020. So one of the things, we've interviewed a couple of people who've been on Shark Tank. And one of the things that we heard is that they will always devalue your company by half. So whatever you go in there asking for, they will always cut it in half. So they'll always try to get half. Yeah. Half is actually like generous. Yeah. Well, on average, like that's like the rule of thumb. They sure as hell might go more. But did you do any research before going into the actual tank to figure out like, okay, here's what I think I should ask for. And here's what they might come back at me with. Like what was your strategy going into face them? I listened to a lot of episodes or I watched a lot of episodes, I should say. And I was like seeing really how the deals formed during the airings, what they came in for, what they left with, what was rejected, what was seen as reasonable by the sharks, what was not seen as reasonable. So I wanted to go in out the gate and really talk about our sales. There's usually two reasons that I see why like people crash and burn on Shark Tank. Number one, you come in with a ridiculous valuation or number two, or I would say three. Number two, they don't like the product, which I don't think we're going to have that problem. And I was right. They love the product. And you had the traction. And we also, the traction that was the third point is the sales. You know, if you're like huge valuation, you do this great pitch, it looks really good. You touch it, smell it. This looks really good. And then like I have 10,000 in sales in the last two years. It's like, it just, the sharks cannot get past that. And it's human nature. You know, when someone like, if you're in a conversation and someone says something that's like off-putting, that's all you think about for the rest of the conversation. That's how Shark Tank works. Well, because they're wondering why. Like now it's like, what am I missing? It's like, it's like someone's pitching their company to you and they're like, and once I get this money, I'm going to quit my job and go full time. Right. And I'm like, what did you just say? Why are you not full time already? You have a job. And then they're like, yeah, but once you give me your money, I'm going to go full time into this product. And I'm like, are you listening to yourself? Like that sounds absurd. It's like a showstopper. Right? You just hear like, It just doesn't give the sharks confidence that they want to put the money into your business because they want the way that they are. Like if you, if you read their stories, like, you know, Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O'Leary or Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban was like sleeping on people's couches in college and even after with no money, completely broke. That's why whenever someone's tearing up with a story of struggle, Mark Cuban's like, I've been there. It resonates with him. You can always see it. Yeah. So like showing commitment, showing traction and a great product are three main things. And luckily, like they love the product. They didn't like the turmeric one, which was it got discontinued about a year ago. I remember Mark saying like, oh, it tastes like turmeric soup. And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, I hope that doesn't get aired. And luckily it didn't get aired. But they love the original. Rohan was drinking. Actually, Rohan liked the original. Because did you want a certain shark first? Like, like, because obviously you probably did, right? You're probably like, I'd love to do a deal with Mark Cuban was OK, he was on your shortlist. He invested in like mush, you know, one of my friend's companies. And that worked out for you then. Vegetarian, you know, and he's just a cool guy, you know, like he's energetic and like fun. So when we got the deal on the air, we came in at two fifty for seven percent. That was my my offer. And then Barbara's like two fifty for fifteen percent. Then I negotiated two fifty for eleven percent. Mark Cuban was already out. Mark Cuban whispered to Barbara. It's like, how about we both come in? I'll come back in with you, Barbara. And we'll do two fifty for twenty five percent, I believe. Two fifty five hundred. Yeah, five hundred for twenty five percent. And I'm like, that's twelve and a half percent per shark. I was asking for eleven percent per shark or for a shark. I'll take the deal. And that was it. Eventually, the deal did fall through. I'm very open about that. A lot of shark tank brands are not like I'm just really open about it because it's the reality. Yeah, we've heard that, you know, you can leave the tank and then the deal falls through and whatever formulation process you have afterwards. I mean, what was that like for you? Was it frustrating? At the time, we could have used the money. Like we were we were doing, I think, three hundred thousand annually in sales or four hundred thousand. I think we're on track to do about seven hundred that year. So five hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. But it's just, you know, the way they structure it is they have so many different deals. There's not a lot of wiggle room or negotiation. So either you go with it or you don't. And we decided, you know, it was mutual, you know, like they say they're like, it's not going to work. We're like, well, it's not going to work. And then we both walked away. I think, though, that the best result happened, which is number one, Mark Cuban still orders the product, which is cool. He's a fan. Still goes to his house, you know, he lives in Dallas. So he has a, you know, everyone knows you can Google his address. And then he also he went to LA for an event. He got it delivered to his hotel. That's really funny. Like I could have gone over there and be like, hey, what's up? But I didn't do that. Have you ever thought about reaching back out and saying, hey, look, Mark, listen, you did, I did, I emailed him. I read an article that he answers, you know, he's selective, but he checks all of his emails, which is exhausting. It takes him like two to three hours a day, but he goes through every email. And I emailed him and I think within a minute he responded. I said, like, hey, Mark, just let you know where, you know, this is like maybe half a year ago, doing great. Thank you again for ordering the product, for saying great things on the show about genius juice and being a fan and supporting us. And he's like, that's great. All right, take care. Like five words. But it was cool that he responded. I think we got the benefit of being aired, so not getting the deal, but airing. And I wanted to make sure that it was entertaining as well. So, you know, we came out for those that have not seen the episode. I think you guys have seen it that we came out with the wigs. Yeah, so good glasses. So good. And we did a coconut smoothie song. I have years of karaoke experience. I've done. This is the first proud of that viewing on this show. Yeah, the karaoke genius. Yeah, actually, KGB karaoke genius bear, my last name. There you go. So I saw after KGB. Yeah, softer. Yeah. I can't imagine too many other KGB guys singing karaoke. No, they're in the back room. Right. They're the ones watching. To go on a tangent, I was looking. I got emailed the pitch deck and I met with the founder and I was talking to them and they were on Shark Tank, but it hasn't aired yet. And it was the first time I had seen this being positioned for fundraising. I was like, do you know when it's going to air? We don't know. You don't know until a few weeks before. Right. And I was like, this is so fascinating. It's like such a crap shoot. I was like, this is like gambling. I was like, it's probably going to go well if it does there. That's the good news. So I'm just trying to analyze the deal as just the product without this Shark Tank thing. But it's like something I can't avoid. It's like in the back of my head, like, oh, well, maybe this is a good deal because once it does there, obviously it does these things go pretty well. Takes off as long as the sharks actually liked it. Or that, right? As long as they don't get embarrassed in the room. It could like totally backfire. Yeah. You also have to get a little lucky with, I guess lucky is the wrong word, but there's a way that for anyone who's going to be on Shark, I know that the auditions are actually coming up. I think, because right now we're taping this or recording this in May. And so June, July is when the auditions start. So having something entertaining, having something that's from the heart, I think is really, really crucial. One of my friends was on, not to go too long about this, but my friend was on the show with Pan's Mushroom Jerky. And he's been public about this, so I can talk about it. But he did more in sales within 24 hours than I think any brand I've ever heard of, at least for food or beverage. It's like a mushroom jerky, but he was very emotional on the show. He actually cried at the end, which is all truth. Like I know him personally. He was struggling, no money in the bank. And to get this big break, it's very emotional. Like it all comes to a head within one hour when you're there at the Shark Tank studio. So yeah, so he went through all these struggles. He succeeded. He got a deal with Mark Cuban, which did go through. And he did almost a million in online sales, I think within one week. We did like 300,000, which is still nothing to scoff at, but a million. And he was backed up because he has his own facility. He was backed up for probably about three to four months. And as soon as he got his head above water, like he was, we were texting back and forth. I actually ordered during the Shark Tank because I wanted to see how long it took. It took a couple months to get one pack. So I knew, but the people are so loyal that not many people canceled. They wanted to taste it, right? It wasn't available everywhere. And I wonder if they understood too, because when I hear like, oh, I did a million in sales after Shark Tank, it's like, great, if you're not expecting that or if your production facility isn't geared towards that, it's going to take you a while to fulfill all of those orders. Growing Pains are insane. He was posting videos from his facility, like, oh, you know, we're working on it now. And he has like his hair net on and like he's like breaking down walls and like hiring new people. So he finally caught up on all of his orders. But then they got, where are they now re-airing? And that's within four months. I mean, that's, he aired in November. And where are they now in like, it was in February. Okay. Like usually it's a year or two or more. To give him time to actually. But he exploded so quickly. They're like, where are they now? Three months later. And he's like, getting his head above water, they got dunked again. Even more sales came in. So it's a great, it's a great platform. But anyone who's applying, you know, recommend just be heartfelt, be you and be passionate and you'll get through. Commit to being yourself. Yeah. Yeah.