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If you take an average store, right, and you walk down, say, the supplement aisle, you're going to see hundreds, if not thousands, of different SKUs and products. And what a lot of retailers don't understand is, is that that creates massive confusion. And that is the first thing you've got to look at, is how do you eliminate confusion on shell?

And one of the best ways to look at it is you say, okay, well, who is currently doing best practices of category management? Now, an independent will hate what I'm going to say, but it's, you know, what they really need to do is go into Walmart, who manages literally on a weekly basis, their profit per inch on shell per week. And, you know, let's take a category like heartburn.

Okay, well, Walmart doesn't sell 50 different, you know, brands of Harper. You'll go up, you'll see Naxion, they'll have, you know, eight facings of the same product. If you go into a health food store, you take that same foot foot area, and they'll have 30 products versus Walmart will have one product of what they're getting behind and supporting.

So the same thing with the independent retailers, is they need to reduce confusion. They need to focus on the products that are science supported, efficacy supported, and they need to focus on products that, you know, aren't just, you know, sold everywhere at these steep discounts because that retailer will never keep up with it.

Having the right assortment in your shelves that differentiate you from other retailers is how you level the playing field across all channels. This is how you get a competitive edge against big brands. Ready to hear more?

Let's start the show.

Now here's Scott. Scott, thank you for coming on today.

Can you please start by telling us a little bit about yourself and your journey to Enzymedica?

I can. First of all, Dan, I want to thank you for inviting me today. I'm really excited to talk to you and expose a little bit about myself.

And more importantly, Enzymedica to your audience today. Thank you. I'm the president and CEO of a company called Enzymedica.

And we are the nation's leading supplier or I should say provider of primarily enzyme dietary supplement products for a wide variety of indications, especially in digestive health. So I represent an organization that our passion is truly searching the planet over for nature solutions to various indication areas, whether it's heartburn products or food and talents, etc.

I appreciate you sharing that. And that's one of the reasons I was thrilled about having you on is because I've played a lot in this space. And what I love about NATURAL is we're trying to find better ways of solving problems that other companies solve by chemicals, which don't work as well.

And you've got some interesting things that you do on the side in terms of the company itself, in terms of how you're supporting the marine life, etc. Why don't we start there and talk about how you're leveraging your relationship with the industry to try to give back and help out with marine life? And where I want to go with that is your relationship, your ability to work within that ecosystem and then bring those insights, those ingredients to help us during our regular lives.

Yeah. You know, just being a natural product based company, it is ingrained in us where, you know, as I said earlier, we are searching the be a planet for nature solutions to good health. And with that, we also have part of our core culture, I call it Enzymedica for people and planet.

And that is our philanthropic side of the business that we believe that as the company, you know, succeeds, we want to give back to the planet because it's the planet that has provided us with all of the gifts that makes us successful. And that People and Planet Initiative really spans a wide group of various organizations and nonprofits that Enzymedica supports. And you mentioned, you know, one of them, we have a product line called Aquabium, which, you know, people can purchase Aquabium at Whole Foods and Sprouts and independent health food stores or online.

Well, that Aquabium brand was developed with the world's finest and purest fish oil products that support what's called a healthy microbiome, which is your total body beginning in your gut and then spreading to the rest of your body, whether it's heart health, your blood health, etc. And that line, as we launched it, we wanted to give back to the sea because that's where we get the officials for that product line. And I learned about an organization called Mote Marine, that's M-O-T-E, and they are a nonprofit that is, you know, call them like the hospital of the sea.

And I was really intrigued by what they were doing, which is they have been trying to raise awareness that our oceans reefs are dying at an alarming pace. And in the last 30 years, over 50% of our oceans reefs are dead. And that's literally the last 30 years.

And yet, the ocean reefs are about 1% of the seafloor. And that 1% produces over 50% of the oxygen of the air you and I both breathe. And so when I heard about that die off, and then most importantly, what they're doing about it.

So what they're doing about it is they developed technology learning from nature to basically get into many of these diseased and or dead reef systems. And they are currently repopulating them. And one of the great needs that they have, like any nonprofit, is funding.

And so, with the Aquabiam product line, in fact, if you look at the package itself or if you go on our website, which we also have aquabiam.com people can go to, or you can go to enzymedica.com and you can find the product, you will learn about the story. And every time that we sell a bottle of that, we make what I like to say a direct investment in the sea. And what that means is that there is a team of scientists located down in the Aki West region, and they are down there right now developing a wide variety of corals.

And then those corals are being planted in a reef that Enzymedica is, I call it sponsoring or investing. Giving back, that's what this is about.

I love that. That's great. In fact, we could spend the entire couple of days talking about this.

Just kidding. I only booked you for a short time. But no, I think it's so fascinating.

And what I love about Natural Scott is how we align with something bigger than the brand. And that's one of the things that appealed to me about you. We'll get into the brand itself in a bit.

But the point being is that there's a difference between what you buy in different stores, different brands, et cetera, between the quality of the ingredients. And what you're talking about is a pure, very high-grade ingredient that's going to do a lot more for me than, say, a synthetic or something like that. And that's one of the things that I would love to be able to help our industry understand is that there's a big difference between taking what you're providing versus some of the other products that are on the shelf, which do little if nothing to really benefit you.

They've got so many different additives and they don't digest right. And when you're talking about microbiome, a lot of people don't understand what that is and why that matters. So let's drill down to that.

Your microbiome, your gut biology. Talk about that. How did you get interested in that?

Because your career has a path that goes through this quite often.

Correct. I'm going to give you, I think, the best layman's insight into what the microbiome is. Because again, we could have a whole scientific discussion.

But I want you and your audience to visualize a swimming pool. And that swimming pool, you want it to be clean, you want it to be clear. It's probably blue.

And when you swim in it, you want to enjoy it because it is clean and clear. But to keep it that way, you have to take care of it. And the way that you take care of it is you need to ensure that the pH is maintained.

And obviously, I'm not a pool expert, and there's all kinds of other things that one does to keep that pool clean. Your body is very much like that swimming pool. And you can't see it, but inside of your body, especially in your digestive system, it's very important that you understand that there is a whole microsystem below your own body's surface that is impacted environmentally.

And it's impacted, what do I mean, environmentally? There's a million to one reasons. It could be the diet that you're eating.

It could be your own gene system. It could be exposure to toxic environments. All of those things alter your microbiome.

Even if you drink a glass of water, your own body's microbiome is influenced. What we do with the Aquabion product line is that it is the only official omega line that has high concentrations of what's called the missing omega DPA. And the DPA has been studied and thoroughly researched to improve, just like that swimming pool, the health of your body's microbiome.

And that microbiome is not just digestion. If you have a healthy microbiome, that is directly connected to your immune system. It's directly connected to your vision, to your heart, to your cognition.

And I could go on and on. Every bodily function connects to it. And so the message that I'm saying is make sure that just like your swimming pool needs to be clean and clear, you should really be thinking about doing the same thing to your own body, because it is living inside of you.

So critically important. I appreciate the analogy. In fact, one of the things that, let me add to that a little bit, sort of a different area to look at, but this explanation I've been using for years, and it really makes a lot of sense to a lot of people.

If you are a celiac, if you have celiacs, your intestine has little cilia in them, and they pick up the nutrients, etc. And so someone with celiacs who needs a gluten-free diet, what happens is those cilia lay down, and your body is starving. It's not getting the nutrients that it needs, and if you are what you eat and what matters, you need to understand this.

And so the point being is like you're talking about, you want to make sure you're giving your body the very best nutrients. And if you've got a situation where your body isn't able to absorb those nutrients properly, then that impacts negatively everything you're talking about. To go one step further, your eye health, your heart health, everything you've talked about, I could not agree with you more.

It's what we need to be thinking about and paying attention to. So the benefit of a natural product, of your product, for example, is that we're addressing that specifically with the highest level of efficacy and the best quality products out there. And the reason that matters is because you're going to feel better, you're going to be healthier, you get more fuel for your body, etc.

You can metabolize those nutrients at a higher, at a better rate than you can if you don't. And what's interesting about, and I want you to talk more about this, the BPA omegas, a lot of people, there's a lot of confusion about the different omegas and the different type of fish oils, etc. And a lot of people think that they're all the same, but they're not.

So thank you for bringing this up. Can you talk a little bit about the differences between the omegas and the fish oils, etc. and why they matter and what's unique about DPA than others?

Yeah, so DPA, again, is that missing omega. And it's the one omega that really provides a conversion between the other omega products. But again, it's the one omega that positively influences your body systems, your body's, again, microbiome systems, as it helps your body convert other forms of omega.

And so it's, again, we're starting to get into the science of this, but it's really at the end of the day, it's all about understanding what makes a difference between a high-quality omega product with the right ratios for your body system. And there's great variability in that. Again, we could talk for the next hour about that, because certain omegas, like DHA, is very good for your cognition, right?

Other ratios are more beneficial for your heart. So we tend to focus our formulas, again, on the human microbiome, which really balances all of your body systems. And it's called the synergistic benefit of our formula that is very unique.

But when you talk about not just the visual area, I'll give you one of the other ones that's a great passion of mine, and that is heartburn. So I will bet a lot of people in your audience have experienced at one point in their lives heartburn. Heartburn is typically something one will experience after eating high-acid foods, foods like orange juice or drinking a lot of coffee or spicy foods.

It's a very uncomfortable feeling, and it leads to all types of issues if it's not managed well. It is a multi-billion dollar marketplace, and it is predominantly supported by what's called PPIs, which is a class of drug. And what those products are really designed to do is to shut down the pumps that produce acid.

So imagine your stomach lining. You need acid in your stomach. It's part of your digestive process.

What those products do is they're actually shutting down those pumps. So your body is producing less acid. Well, the challenge with it is that it's extraordinarily effective.

Now, what do I mean by the challenge? They're really designed to be taken for two weeks, but most people take them for years, and that's where the challenge comes, because as you shut down that mechanism in your body, you're basically killing off what your body is designed to naturally do, which is to produce stomach acid. It doesn't stop there.

Those pumps are part of your total body system, and those same pumps get shut down throughout your body, and that leads to all kinds of other concerns. And so I looked at that, and we focused for several years on searching the planet for what would nature provide that would alleviate the issues of heartburn. And after looking at thousands of various natural products, natural ingredients, we found that a very unique form of seaweed creates this frothing experience.

And so we researched it. It's called Algenate. It comes from brown seaweed.

And we created a product called Heartburn Relief that literally within 60 to 90 seconds of taking that product, you get immediate benefit in relieving heartburn. Now, what does that product do? It doesn't shut down acid, which acid is critical.

It's almost like your waste disposal. Acid is there to break down what your body doesn't need. And what we do is you keep that acid, but yet you have this seaweed in it.

When you chew the tablet, it creates a foam that as it enters your stomach, it floats to the top of your stomach, and it creates that barrier from you experiencing a lot of the heartburn issues. And then we also have in that product a proprietary prickly pear extract that also coats your stomach lining and helps you rebuild that part of your body. What I can tell you with Enzymedica is there are a lot of dietary supplement companies out there, but we're focused on the best solutions from the planet, but then we need to prove it with the science.

And anytime that you purchase an Enzymedica product, you're getting the best of the best.

Love that. And I love your analogy so much better, so thank you for sharing that. That's actually one of the questions I was going to ask you about is how it impacts the acidity in your system.

And the reason all this matters is because if we have the right microbiome, then a lot of the other, and thank you for sharing this, a lot of the other issues people are trying to solve are automatically resolved as a result. And people don't understand that, kind of like what you're talking about, great analogy, that by fixing a problem, quote unquote, by actually creating more problems is not the solution. And that's sort of the mainstream belief or the mainstream mindset where we're going to put a bandaid on it to solve this particular problem, but not think about how that impacts everything else, like you said, heartburn.

I know a lot of people that live on products like that all the time, and they don't eat very well, they don't eat very clean, they don't get the right kind of rest, etc. So with that said, your commitment to impacting, to improving our lives by making sure that you've got the very best products, how do you then market that? How do you communicate that to your community, to people that want to buy supplements?

Well, several ways, right? First of all, there is, call it the trade side, right? So on the trade side, which is our relationship with our retail partners.

And we've got a national sales team that is going into our customers and educating them as for each and every product, specifically how it works and showing them the science. So that as consumers come into their stores, those same retailers can then communicate those benefits, right? So that's kind of phase one.

And then we also have an education team. We've got a vice president of education who has spent her lifetime in the natural product industry. And she conducts a lot of educational events.

You know, now pre-COVID, they were in person. Now we're looking at, you know, call them Zoom type events or events like a you and I are doing right now. And we're doing more and more of those.

And many of those are open to consumers where they can then join those events and they can learn. But the other part of it is that we also have a scientific advisory board team. And three of them are MDs, medical doctors.

And one of them is a natural pharmacist. And so each of them in their own ways, you know, several of them are authors and they are in the media. They're very passionate about spreading the word and educating the market or I should say consumers on natural options.

And then, you know, other areas that we do it is, is on Enzymedica's website. If you go to enzymedica.com, you know, we have a free test that one can take. It's called Digest 360.

It takes about maybe a minute to do it. And it asks you some questions. And then it learns about you.

And in the end, you get a very specific write-up about yourself and what product considerations you should be considering. So, you know, those are probably one of a hundred or plus different things that we are currently doing. I wish that I was, you know, call it like a Procter & Gamble, where I had $100 million I could throw out there for, you know, mainstream advertising.

We don't do that because, in my opinion, as much as I want to raise awareness, it's all about putting the quality into the product itself rather than pissing it away into a marketing, right? It's a catch-22 for us.

Well, I know exactly what you mean. In fact, that's like I told you before that I've got a lot of experience working in the supplement category specifically and trying to educate people as to why a $30 bottle of vitamin C or gut health or whatever is better for you than buying two for $5 at $1,000, whatever, I mean, the mainstream products, because like you say, just kind of, excuse me, piss it away because there's such a difference. One of the things I love about natural retailers is their ability to communicate the value of their products.

And if I go into a big box store, traditionally a mainstream retailer, it's, well, that products aren't aisle five, help yourself. And so you have a unique ability to educate consumers that come into those stores. But like I said, COVID, one of the things that I think, one of the challenges or frustrations that I have in this industry, Scott, is that we don't do a good enough job celebrating the quality of the ingredients, the story behind it, the why.

So if I'm walking into a store and I have questions about gut health and I talk to a store clerk and they don't know about your product and they recommend different things and maybe they like it or whatever, how does that benefit the customer? And at the end of the day, that's what we need to do is, like you said, start there and help educate people. But the challenge is, when you work with the larger retailers, they don't have that sales force.

So then, how do you help those customers understand the benefits? And what I'm talking about here, Scott, is that customers look beyond the four corners of their package. Now, you've talked about the website, and you've talked to them about some of the other educational things that you do.

Do you have a way to capture my information, bring me into your ecosystem, educate me about the product, the planet, everything you're doing, and more importantly, educate me about how your product specifically is going to benefit me more?

We do, and we're investing heavily in exactly that. But before I answer that, one of the important things I think for your audience to hear is, is the most expensive product in the case of the indication areas we represent, especially in digestion, the most expensive product is the cheapest product. Because if you're buying a product for $10 or $15 or $5 and it doesn't work, you are literally wasting your money.

And yet, the most beneficial product will tend to be the higher quality product because those products will be based upon what the true clinical studies support for the benefit you're looking to receive. I always like to say with Enzymedica, our core advantage is you feel the difference with your next meal. So when you're dealing with digestion, you feel that immediate benefit.

And that's actually one of our core advantages that we have, is we also do a lot of sampling. So it's very grassroots, but when you give a consumer, say a sample of our Digest Gold product, which is for complete meal digestion, and they try it, they experience the benefit literally with their next meal. Because you take that product five minutes before you eat, so that the capsule opens, and the enzymes immediately start breaking down your foods.

But from a bigger picture perspective, one of the things COVID has done for us and for a lot of companies is we had to completely think differently. And so we have a dedicated, I call them e-commerce team, that we have added and we've invested in. And a lot of that is in our social media practices.

So if you go to Enzymedica's Facebook, we've got a audience and we're continuing to expand that. On our Facebook platform, we'll do a lot of interviews. You can actually watch me interview the scientist at Mot Marine and actually taking you out and showing you underneath the sea, the reef itself, right?

So that's another more modern means is using social media platforms to reach wider audiences, to understand the why of Enzymedica and the why of our products. And I can only say so much, but you're going to see that amped up more and more as we move forward.

And that is the opportunity. That's the future. To your point, yeah, a P&G has tons of money that can throw out the problem or try the quote unquote solution.

You're right. But the challenge is big companies spend most of time talking at us, not to us. And big companies are saying, hey, you need to buy this because it's cheap without focusing on what the real benefit is.

And that's what I want to talk about. That's exactly what you're getting at a minute ago. You know, I have a slide when I get up on stage and I talk to people and I talk about how the core natural consumer does not settle.

They want what they want. And I ask the question, have you ever gotten a great deal on something that didn't work? And how frustrated, how angry, how upset you were, how taken, how you feel like you were taken.

And yet the point is, is that the committed natural consumer, the one that we're talking about, does not settle. They understand the differences about what we're talking about. I liken that to be the ripple in the pond.

That's where all the trends start. The fact that you've got a robust sampling program, your focus on bringing customers into your ecosystem and converting occasional customers into little shoppers, that's a great thing because then you can leverage that at retail. And you can also up your retail partner's benefit by saying, look, I'm more than just another ATM machine in your store.

And you know what I mean by that in terms of, you know, the promotions and stuff like that, but rather you can add real value, not only to the consumers that you help, but to the retailers that you're supporting. How do you do that? Because we talked a little bit last time about your category management initiatives.

You know, it's that has been a challenge again. There is a different answer to that question nine months ago, right? You know, pre-COVID than what there is today, you know, and because today's world is so very different, you know, I mean, for instance, just doing face to face with retail clerks, you know, really shouldn't be happening right now due to social distancing.

And so, you know, it all goes back to what we're investing in, which is, you know, how can we do this using new modern technologies so that we can do it safely and we can reach broader audiences? And, you know, I can only get into so much because we're literally building things right now, but I can tell you that I'm deeply committed in investing in exactly that strategy, because, you know, it has nothing to do with competition. It has everything to do with a personal mission that we have to spread the word and help consumers find, you know, products from nature, because they need them right now versus either they're not taking anything and they're suffering or they're taking other things that may not be beneficial to them long term.

And that, in my mind, is really under Enzymedica people on planet, is that it's our mission to figure out a way to try to educate the marketplace. You know, one of the things, and this is a little bit of a side statement to that last topic, but, you know, we have seen a lot of new supplement companies pop up. Now, you know, that's great because you get innovation and all of that.

The concern that I see with a lot of these new companies is they're being launched by individuals that didn't know anything about nature or the science. These are marketing people and, you know, they're getting funding and they're hiring really, you know, successful agencies and they're building these compelling stories online that makes the average consumer believe in them. And yet, you know, there is one area we've got, I believe, the finest apple cider vinegar product on the planet.

And, you know, we've seen a competitor that's using a delivery system that's a gummy. And it's sugar, right? It's, you know, when you test that product and you look for the activity of it, it's not what you want to see, okay?

And yet, when you look at the marketing, the product looks unbelievable and you want the product. So, you know, we're not just fighting with raising awareness of the opportunity. We also have to counter these new brands that are coming out with, you know, inferior ingredients, selling at a lower price with marketing that makes them look and feel premium.

And yet, the products really aren't. So it's it's it is a challenging world to say the least.

This is exactly the problem I'm trying to help solve. So I'm glad that you said that. And I think I know which company you're talking about.

And I agree with you. It looks sexy. And it looks like, hey, you know, that makes sense.

I'll buy it. But to your point, yeah, you spend the wrong money on the wrong product. It's not going to help you out.

Then it actually turns you away from the category, from other solutions. The thing that I'm getting at, and I know we talked about this before, is I believe that retail is broken. I believe our food system is broken.

And what I mean by that is that they are so addicted, retailers, distributors, et cetera, to this thing, to this drug they call trade marketing. And yet the reality is that you have the ability to help that retail remain relevant, relevant, meaning helping them compete more effectively against all of the competition in their markets, online, et cetera, by providing insights that your other brands can't provide. So what I mean by that, it doesn't take a lot of talent to walk into a retailer and start writing checks.

I mean, everyone does it in the industry, unfortunately, but it does take some talent to walk into a retailer and say, here's my consumer, my consumer, when they buy my product, here's what else they buy in the store, more super premium products, et cetera. And when they buy those products, they come back into your store again and again and again. And they, instead of inviting that consumer to go into, you know, online or whatever to buy the products.

And the challenge with your category more than any other category is consumers come into the store to try it and then go online to buy it afterwards. So your ability to educate that retailer to help better educate that consumer and build that know, like and trust with that consumer is critical. But let's go one step further.

Your ability to help future proof that retailer's brand, and this is something I did actually talk about for the category, I mean for the weekly webinar series I did. I did a presentation for the Canadian Organic Trade Association on exactly this. But how to leverage the strength of your brand to keep that customer coming back in the store again and again and again.

And how retailers should look to you for insights that they can't get from someone else. And that's more valuable to them than anything else someone else is going to pay in terms of sliding and all those other fees. Your thoughts?

Yeah, actually it's really ironic that you're bringing this topic up because in the naturopathic industry, there was a show, a trade event recently, and Enzymedica, we were sponsoring one of the evening dinners, and I was going to have myself and our management team discuss that topic with the independent retailers as to, you know, here are some best practices for you to be successful, go forward. I ended up canceling that event due to COVID, but, you know, it's, it's, there's a lot of answers or mitigators, I guess, relative to that particular topic. But one of the things, one of the first places, if you're talking to a retail store, is number one, only market the quality products, and do a diligence on that.

Make sure that the products that are in your store, you personally believe in, and know and learn what quality really means. So Enzymedica, for instance, rather than just us saying it, we partnered with the Clean Label Project. We were the first dietary supplement brand to do that, and they tested our products independently to verify that.

So you want to look for companies that are literally, proactively going to a real third party to have their products tested. But the other thing is that on the retail side, there is something called MAP pricing, minimum advertised price. Now, a lot of the cheaper brands, they don't control their price because they don't really care.

They're about selling volume. And those brands you can buy on various e-commerce platforms for very low prices. Well, retailers don't keep up with that discounting, okay, because they can't live off of that.

And so Enzymedica, we fiercely protect and we create equal pricing for anyone who is selling our products. And that's very important. And then I'm going to share with you, I was traveling, gosh, it was probably a couple of years ago, and every time that I travel, I also like to go into some of the independent stores just to feel what's happening.

And I was in Atlanta, and I'm not going to say the name of the store, but I happened to walk into this store and they have been around for decades. And the owner of it, as I walked in, was in tears. And she was in tears because of the reduced traffic in her store.

And then just as we were talking about that, a consumer walked in, and so I kind of stood aside and I was just looking at her store and I couldn't help but hear that store owner interact with that consumer. And what she was interacting on was that particular consumer was having food and digestion issues. And that store owner was asking her, when do you experience these symptoms?

What type of foods do you eat? I mean, it was amazing what she was doing. And in the end, that consumer was getting solutions.

And so I sat down with that owner and I said, look, you're not going to compete against Amazon, so don't build a website and don't go after that because you're not going to do it as good as what they're doing. But when you stood outside of her door, she was on a busy intersection. And I said, when you stand outside of your door, thousands of people are driving by, they think that you're selling rice cakes in here, when the reality is you are the messenger to be able to help those same consumers understand that there are solutions from nature.

They don't know that you exist and that you have this knowledge. And so what I suggested to her, don't compete against e-commerce, don't compete against the large national chains. Instead, focus on what you do best, which is consulting with the consumers and helping them make selection.

And really focus especially on digestion and food intolerances. Because, you know, when you talk about an issue like bloating, well, there could be 20 different reasons causing that. You're not going to get the answer on a website.

You need to sit down with someone to really understand what's causing it. And that's what a retailer can do, is spend the time to understand that consumer, build that relationship with the consumer and the trust. And many times that consumer can buy the product for cheaper online, but they're not because they want to support that retailer so that they can continue to help other people.

So that's a very different approach than standard, you know, getting into category management systems and how do you optimize your profit per inch on your shelf? And what do you do to raise awareness with public relations? Those are all standard ways of making your store successful.

When I like to look the other way and say, why don't you reinvent your store? And rather than saying health food store, call it a food intolerance center.

Love that. Thanks for sharing that. And this is where I say Amen.

I agree completely. And this is the kind of stuff. This is exactly what all my content is about.

In fact, in terms of the category management piece, a lot of people think of category management. Well, you listen to the quote unquote experts and they talk about velocity and price and all that other stuff. The reality is contribution is the key driver.

The contribution, what your brand, the profit your brand contributes to the category, to the market basket, to the retailer, that's where we need to be focused on. And the reality is that the smaller brands that don't try to super discount things, the more premium brands, they're the ones that contribute the profit, the growth to every retailer. So to your point, let the retailer down the street sell something that doesn't work.

You're the solution and this is exactly why I do what I do. This is the kind of stuff I love talking about. And back to your earlier point with the natural retailers, trying to get them away from that mindset and help them understand that you should not try to compete with the next big retailer down the street.

You need to differentiate yourself. And that's one of the things I was thrilled about when you're talking about what you're doing as far as category management and helping retailers understand that. I'd love to be a part of that conversation at some point, or certainly leverage any of my resources.

But the point is we need to change the way people think about natural retailers. And we need to help natural retailers understand the benefit of the customer that we're driving to the store. And how your customer is so much more valuable.

And how, again, if you can develop that relationship that no lie can trust and convert that customer from an occasional customer to a low shopper, like you said, that's where the real opportunity is. That customer that will go back again and again and again because they got additional value from that customer. You're going to say something?

Yeah, I am. If you take an average store, right, and you walk down, say, the supplement aisle, you're going to see hundreds, if not thousands, of different SKUs and products. And what a lot of retailers don't understand is that that creates massive confusion.

And that is the first thing you've got to look at is how do you eliminate confusion on shell? And one of the best ways to look at it is you say, okay, well, who is currently doing best practices of category management? Now, an independent will hate what I'm going to say, but it's, you know, what they really need to do is go into Walmart, who manages literally on a weekly basis their profit per inch on shell per week.

And, you know, let's take a category like Heartburn. Okay, well, Walmart doesn't sell 50 different, you know, brands of Heartburn. You'll go up, you'll see Naxiom.

They'll have, you know, eight facings of the same product. If you go into a health food store, you take that same foot foot area and they'll have 30 products versus Walmart will have one product of what they're getting behind and supporting. So the same thing with the independent retailers is they need to reduce confusion.

They need to focus on the products that are science supported, efficacy supported, and they need to focus on products that, you know, aren't just, you know, sold everywhere at these steep discounts because that retailer will never keep up with it. And then the other thing to be looking at if you're a retailer is that what I call the 80-20 rule. I mean, we've all heard that since business school.

The fact is you look at that aisle, I guarantee you take all of the products there, 20% of the SKUs are driving over 80% of the revenue. Well, by carrying all that other stuff, you don't have enough time and resources for order management, inventory control, paying all these different suppliers. And that's where I think a retailer can really reinvent themselves.

Well, I couldn't agree with you more. In fact, I want to go one step further. I think that a lot of times, retailers are busy trying to sell us the stuff on their shelves rather than selling us the stuff we want to buy.

And this is where a natural retailer has a unique opportunity. Instead of trying to be the one size fits all for the consumer that doesn't align with a natural product, like you said, and I love that, Scott, is that you could be the natural solution provider for digestive health or whatever. And so by carrying the best ingredients and carrying the best products and leveraging your shelf accordingly, that's absolutely, that's where we need to be.

So back to what you're talking about in terms of the category management piece, I think a lot of the challenge is that a lot of people are so busy trying to spend a lot of money to get us to buy the stuff on the shelf that they're thinking about the profit from that standpoint. Instead, why don't we focus on the contribution, the dollars that your product drives into the category? Oh, and by the way, when I go in to buy Enzymedica, I buy a lot of other premium products as well.

And so at the end of the day at the checkout, the market basket, total sum of everything I buy, is higher than it would be if I buy the cheap stuff. It's higher than I would be if I'm trying to compete against another store and trying to be very price sensitive. So changing this conversation is exactly where I think we need to be.

Again, this is where all my content is based on. And that's one of the things that impressed me most, is that you were trying to not only solve the problems in the ocean, which I commend you for doing, but also for bringing real solutions to people to help them out. And then also, and this is my bailiwick, if you will, is trying to help retailers understand the benefit of leveraging the two together.

Do you have additional thoughts you want to share?

You know, I've seen this throughout my entire career, you know, this battle. And, you know, I think that right now more than ever, this topic is urgent for especially the independent retailers. Absolutely.

And, you know, I think anyone who is a retailer themselves listening to this call, it's time to wake up, okay? And when I say wake up, get out of bed right now, okay? And really start, you know, asking yourselves, this is a new world, what am I doing about it?

Because tomorrow can't wait, right? And, you know, it's in look, look at, look to others for success. So, you know, I live in the Sarasota community, and which is south of Tampa, beautiful community on the ocean.

A lot of, you know, retail stores have been struggling, all right, just due to COVID. We've got a small chain down here called Detwiler's. Now, this is a farmer's market store.

It's locally owned. Well, if you drove by any of their locations right now, their entire parking lot is completely full. And it was full all the way through COVID.

I mean, it was unbelievable, right? Now, what they did was they adapted. I saw them adapt with, and I think it was two or three weeks, where they put out tents outside.

And other consumers could call in, or they went online, and they could put what they wanted. And they had a team out there. So all you had to do was the cars were driving up.

Their people were literally handing them their order. And it was perfectly organized. And I will bet, I have no idea what their sales are.

I'll bet their sales went through the roof for the last six to nine months. So they adapted rapidly to this COVID situation. And they're going to continue to thrive.

Just like, what's one of the greatest success stories in our industry retail is Whole Foods, right? Whole Foods, what they did was they basically took existing real estate that was owned by, call it a lot of former independent retailers that were your neighborhood grocery store, right? And those independent retailers died out because the big chains came in and they couldn't compete with price.

So Whole Foods said, look, I'm going to buy that same location because it's in a very populous neighborhood, but I'm going to reinvent that same real estate by selling high quality product, high quality produce, organic foods, healthier options, pre-prepared food. And they built a multi-billion dollar business by simply reinventing real estate and looking at it differently versus what the independents did, which was selling Wonder Bread. Huge difference.

absolutely. And that's a great story. And again, it gets back to what makes natural, natural, innovation.

We're closer to our customers. We understand what their needs are. If we listen to our customers and stop trying to pay attention to Wall Street, what they do is it doesn't matter.

In fact, actually, I started writing articles for New Hope years ago. And where I started, where I finally got their attention, was trying to help them with a story that was exactly like this. They were celebrating a retailer that every time Target or someone would bring in a natural product, they would discontinue it.

And finally, the retailer went out of business. And they were celebrating it in their articles and their content. I'm going, no, no, no, no, no.

We just lost a voice in the industry. Instead, let's help that independent retailer differentiate themselves. And I got a billion stories like I'm sure you do about how retailers that did that, brands that did that like you have, have differentiated themselves and been able to be very successful.

And then back to your comment about the natural category, about the supplement category. I did a lot of work for one of your competitors a while back. And I went into a store and I asked for a vitamin B supplement and the store clerk took me to 16 different locations.

We make this too complicated. So I helped them change the way that they marketed and put the product out and focused on condition specific. This is several years ago.

But the point is trying to make it super simple, easy for customers to understand. And I know that your category specifically is one where there's a lot of opportunity and there's also a lot of noise. And the challenge is that people don't understand the benefits, like where we started this conversation, of the right kind of omegas, the right kind of healthy products in your system and why this matters.

So thank you for starting there. By the way, I had Jackie Bowen on from the Clean Label Project last week on the free weekly webinar series. So you definitely want to go check it out.

I was able to add the story to what they're doing in terms of how do you leverage the Clean Label strategy, the Clean Label messaging to grow sales at retail and on shelf and with your brand, etc. So you definitely want to go back and check that out. In fact, actually the extension is retailsolved.com forward slash Clean Label Project.

So great episode. But yeah, so thank you for sharing all those insights. What are the things would you like to talk about?

How's Enzymedica doing? What other challenges are you facing? What bottleneck do you have that I can help you solve?

You know, it's the challenges, you know, obviously really came towards the, you know, call it the March, really the March, April, June time period, you know, because there were so many unknowns. And, you know, we have adapted, just like I was suggesting with a retailer should be doing, we adapted very rapidly. And we have added a lot of team members to help us adapt.

So a lot of our challenges have, I don't want to say been sold, but by bringing in new individuals, new talent, to really help us drive the future of the company. You know, the greatest issue, I think, though, that remains for us is, you know, I think between now and at minimum the next six months, you know, let's face it, you know, we've got a national pandemic that continues. And, you know, the data has not been good, right?

And so, you know, we are still, like everyone else, severely handicapped in our ability to go out into the marketplace and really get, especially the retailers, as we're introducing new products, to get them exposure to many of these new solutions that we're trying to provide them with. You know, that's probably one of our greatest challenges, I think, we're currently facing. And, you know, and there's great variation in that.

You know, it's not just the pandemic. You know, this year, we've had racial rioting. We've had, you know, West Coast fires.

I mean, it has been an ongoing roller coaster to adapt. But, you know, for 2021, I think there's going to be six months of continued kind of current marketplace conditions. And, you know, whether you're, you know, someone that's going to take the vaccine or not, you know, that's your own personal decision.

And I think we all have to learn more about that. You know, but that's certainly going to, I suspect, hopefully start to normalize the world. And I am, you know, very favorable that I think, especially into the second half of the year, things will get better.

But we have fared very, very well as a company, and I'm extremely proud of that.

Good. Well, I can give you some insights or some thoughts on how you might even help yourself more if you're interested. So a couple of things we've talked about.

One of them, you need to be able to bring people into your ecosystem. So if I come into your ecosystem and I learn more about the product, I become a value added customer. If you promote something at retail, first of all, if you promote something at retail, you have no idea who I am.

You don't know anything about me. Why about the product? How I use the product, if I like it or don't like it, etc.

If you can bring me into your tribe or develop a tribe online, outside of your brand, outside traditional retail, then you can have this conversation with me. And I've got a lot of great strategies around that. So that's one.

Two, if you're promoting at retail, let me back up. The sole focus of your promotional dollars should be to introduce a new customer to your brand, period. You should not be trying to reward me for buying your product if you were already on my list, if your product is already on my list.

And so instead of doing the deep discounting at retail, focus on rewarding me incrementally through your tribe, through your online presence. And leverage the retail strategy, your promotional strategy, so that you're focused on driving new trials, kind of like you're doing, giving away product, etc. Which I think is a great idea.

Third thing you need to do, now our next thing you need to do, is be able to get insights from me as a consumer that you can then leverage at retail. The thing that drives me now, and we kind of talked about this, Scott, is that every brand, every person out there, all the quote unquote thought leaders, tell brands and retailers that all you need to do is hit a button, spit out a report, and you walk in with a ranking report or something and this is all you need. The reality is, is that the same strategy that someone uses to sell Motorola is not going to differentiate your digestive health products.

It's not going to differentiate you between the cheap stuff. And so, retailers want insights that they can't get from anyone else. So leverage that.

Leverage and celebrate that. Be able to bake that into your selling strategy.

I'm sorry. On that, I've been involved in my career in literally millions of dollars and probably some of the most extensive consumer insight research. We've done a lot of quantitative, qualitative studies and market segmentation on exactly that.

And you're right. Its voice of customer needs to be understood. Because you can't market to everyone.

Because not everyone has an interest. And that's definitely something that I think is extraordinarily good advice.

Thank you. Well, and to go a step further, here's the challenge. Here's what differentiates us.

Most of the solution providers out there commoditize the shopper. So, if I go ask most companies what the low house consumer is, it's someone who eats a couple salads and goes for a walk. However, in our world, we're interested in reducing our carbon footprint.

We're focusing on the sea. We're focusing on coral reefs. We're focusing on things that are bigger than just the brand and the profit.

Big brands are also talking at us and not having conversation with us. By being able to leverage that tribe that you're building and nurture that tribe, etc. now you've got insights that no one else can provide.

And so, now when you go into a retailer and say, hey, look at me, I'm a nice guy, I got a great t-shirt, great slogan or whatever, here's my checkbook. Now you're focused on how do you help that retailer remain relevant? Meaning, how do you help that retailer keep me as a customer coming back in the store again and again and again?

Your example with a retailer in Atlanta, that's exactly what we need to be doing. Stop chasing the dollars, the price down to the bottom. No one's going to win that game.

And that's why a lot of retailers have condensed afterwards. And then the next thing I'd recommend is that when you're looking at the data, especially in your category, Scott, the data is not segmented properly around the way your customer shops the category. And I know that for a fact.

FrI bought the distribution tracker for Spins, which got them to start selling retailer and store level data. And their data is good, but it doesn't matter if it's Nielsen, IRI or Spins, none of it actually affects. Yes, it is.

And so my secret sauce is helping brands isolate that and clean that up and be able to leverage that. So now we know what's actually going on on shelf. So instead of skating to where the puck's already been days, months, whatever ago, it's skating to where the puck is going.

And so when you're talking about prebiotics, probiotics, et cetera, but first of all, it's not coded correctly. Secondly, because it's not as clean as it needs to be. But secondly, because of the confusion, all the noise in the industry, the products that shouldn't be in the category that don't provide any real benefit, stuff like that, you know, clean all that out.

FThen we can take that and we can overlay it with a consumer messaging, consumer target marketing we're talking about. And then we can leverage that at retail and help our retail partners become future proof, help them remain relevant. And then one thing, yeah, thank you.

And then one thing more, we can actually develop our trade marketing strategies so that we can help isolate exactly where we want to spend our dollars. There's a free trade promotion ROI calculator on my website. And the point is, if you know exactly where to spend your money, you're going to get a higher return from your investment, a higher ROI.

Does that help?

It does. And I'll add to that. I mean, it's, you know, using that a store that I mentioned earlier, and I've seen them all across the country, it really begins on what is outside of your store as much as it does within your store.

It does.

Okay. And, you know, most retailers, you know, I think one of the best things they could be doing and our sales staff does this is take the retailer outside of their store, stand in the street and look at the store itself and say to yourself, I've never been in the store. Do I want to go in?

And why do I want to go in? You know, and so that's where Enzymedica and other companies can help them, whether it's helping them improve signage or whatever via cases. But no, you are spot on, I think, with all of that advice.

Thank you for that.

Well, you're welcome. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I'd go one step further. We also got to look at the entire category. I remember I used to work for someone, I kind of mentioned a minute ago, where brands would walk into the category and they'd say, no, we only compete in that small sliver of natural.

It's like, no, you don't. You compete against every single brand on that shelf. And if you don't know what the volume of that brand is or how that brand is performing, et cetera, you're shooting yourself in the foot.

I love that advice. That's great advice. And again, it's about understanding the customer journey.

And that's where you come in. So thank you so much. Any last thoughts?

Tell us a little bit more about Enzymedica. How can we get a hold of you? How can we find out more about you?

How can we learn more about the brand and where we can find it, et cetera?

Yeah. What the best place, I think, initially, is going to enzymedica.com website. That's the real portal into the company.

And we've got video content. We've got Digestive 360 surveys. And keep on going back to it because there's a lot of new things that we're developing right now that I think will be extraordinarily helpful to both consumers and retailers.

The other places to go to would be Facebook. Facebook is one of the key areas that is constantly updated. You can learn about the newest products, but you're going to be getting a lot of education that will be put through that via Facebook platform.

And then finally, go into the retailers. Let's talk about the retailers and are very knowledgeable about Enzymedica. Go into retail stores and if you're suffering with the digestive issue, share that issue with that store.

I think you're going to get a lot of life-changing answers from them. I do want to thank you so much for inviting me and for all of your audience listening to us today. And then finally for the great advice that you offered me and really anyone listening to this today.

I appreciate it. Thanks. You know what?

I forgot something. So let me correct that. Your mission is great.

I love your mission. Celebrate your mission. So if I'm a consumer, well I am a consumer, I don't have the time, well I'm in Colorado, I can't go to the ocean and help plant coral.

That's something I can't do. It's physically, you know, it's not, I wouldn't know how to do it anyhow. However, if I can support a brand that supports a mission that I align with, that's critically important.

So bake that in your song story as well. Thank you so much, Scott. I appreciate that.

And thanks for your time and I look forward to our next conversation. And I would love to help you, help the retail community, figure out how to go, how to change the way that they go to market instead of focusing on how do you compete to the lowest common denominator price. Instead, let's talk about what really matters.

The consumer that we're educating, the consumer bringing into the franchise. Thank you again for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks, Scott. I want to thank Scott for coming on today and for sharing his wisdom and his insights. More importantly, for sharing how he's helping the environment as well as the ocean.

How those two are so interconnected with everything that's important to us. I'll be certain to put a link to Enzymedica on the podcast web page so that you can learn about the important work that Enzymedica is doing on our behalf.