Coco5 - The Athlete-Backed Brand Moms Love

Ramon Vela (00:02.466)
Welcome back everyone. This is going to be a great show. I have with me today, James Reynolds, who is the co-CEO and co-founder of Coco 5. Welcome to the show.

Jim Reynolds (00:30.398)
Thank you, Ramon. It's good to be here.

Ramon Vela (00:32.898)
Well, I appreciate you making some time for us. I know you're busy. You got a lot of stuff going on and it's a little bit later in your day. So I appreciate it. I love to feature companies like yours and kind of dive in to the business, entrepreneurship, why you do what you do, why it's important. And then also all of everything about the product we want to know. I always like to start these conversations with a question of gratitude.

And for anyone listening out there, there's a couple of reasons why gratitude to me is just a great tool to relieve stress and anxiety. And it's helped me through some of my dark moments in my entrepreneurial journey and my personal journey. And it's just something I love to promote. It's free. And it's just one of those things that you could use to relieve stress and anxiety. But I also do it because I have found

that is very easy for consumers to look at a product on the shelf or online and just sort of think like, it's just some faceless corporation. I want people to know that there's real people behind these products and these brands that we feature. People who bleed sweat and tear, who sacrifice, who work hard, who care about the product, care about the brand, care about the communities and really bring that human

level, bring this interview to a very human level. And so one great way of humanizing this is an understanding who's behind this is by knowing what you're grateful for. So James, with that said, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you or your vision or your potential?

Jim Reynolds (02:20.434)
Boy, know, could, Ramon, I could go through a few of these later in life. I could go through them early, but there's one that meant so much early in life when I was 20 years old, which was almost 50 years ago.

Ramon Vela (02:36.302)
You

Jim Reynolds (02:39.006)
Back when I was in school, I went to college, I was in college and I was a basketball player in college and I decided to leave the team and just start focusing on my academics. And as a part of that, there was an opportunity to study overseas in Copenhagen. It's gotten made before a year. I had

zero money, zero dollars. I had nothing but the desire to go over there and study. And I came home for Chicago prior to the fall semester with, you know, the dream to go, but no money to go. And there was one Mrs. Rogers that worked with me and a summer job.

Ramon Vela (03:21.71)
Thank

Jim Reynolds (03:29.914)
that really took a liking to me. I'm just a grown and 20 year old sophomore in college that really wanted to study. And she figured out a way to, like I said, I'm not from a family that has a lot of money and means or anything like that. I'm not even sure if my family had much of a checking or savings account, but she figured out a way she actually managed to get money from certain

Ramon Vela (03:51.544)
Thank

Jim Reynolds (03:59.526)
of the summer jobs I worked at, funds to get me overseas. And I stayed there for a year in Copenhagen, Denmark and traveled a lot. That was first time I'd been out of the country. It changed every single thing about my trajectory after that. I came back, I was straight A student over there. I came back here, graduated, Dean's List. mean, all of that was happening there.

Ramon Vela (04:16.75)
Hmm.

Jim Reynolds (04:27.516)
And then I went and studied in France after that. And so it was really that her, she didn't have to do anything for me really, but she decided this guy's got to go. He's got a vision. He's got a dream and he wants to make it happen. And I'm going to do it for him. And she did. Wonderful. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (04:43.2)
Wow. Wow. And did you have the opportunity to share with her later how this impacted you?

Jim Reynolds (04:54.238)
all the time during, I stayed in touch with her while I was there. I communicated with her while I was back. She was so special and so important to me. You she wasn't around later in life when everything culminated in terms of a successful career, but certainly during my college years and a little bit after she was there. So she really knew the impact that she had on me.

Ramon Vela (05:20.012)
Wow. Those things are, you know, they seem, they can seem small or trivial, but they're just so impactful. Like the experience that you must have had, you know, being out into a new country and in another part of the world. It's just really, it's just a huge, huge experience to have that at that age, right? The things you learned and all of that.

Jim Reynolds (05:44.925)
Well.

Well, yeah, you know, for me, I'm I was a guy from the South side of Chicago. I was born and raised in Chicago and Chicago's really community based. And I hadn't been out of the community. I went to school in Wisconsin, which was a three hour drive, a four hour drive away. My first time I went, though, I went on a Greyhound bus and it took about 12 hours to go from Chicago to La Crosse, Wisconsin. When I was finally able to get a car, I did it in about three and a half. I remember coming home saying,

Ramon Vela (06:08.332)
Thank

Jim Reynolds (06:16.988)
You mean it's only three and a half hours away and I just did 12 hours all night long on a Greyhound bus. And so I didn't have a lot of exposure and getting overseas and just really leaving the country, discovering different cultures, different people. It really made me stretch myself, stretch my imagination, stretch my learning, my exposure.

Ramon Vela (06:18.67)
You

Jim Reynolds (06:43.854)
I even talk to, I speak to a lot of young people today as in a lot. and I talked to them about having a chance to get over there and study over there and experience life over there outside of the U S there was one of the most important things of my existence. And it really got me sharpened and, and, anxious to continue to excel in the things I was doing and go back and study some more and come back here. Even though I spent time over there, I always knew I was coming back here.

to Chicago nonetheless, not just to the U.S., but to Chicago, which is my home. So it was an amazing impression on me at that time and in later life and still does.

Ramon Vela (07:14.024)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (07:23.16)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, like I said, these little things that people do for you that there was something, and this is actually the, goes to the heart of the question. There was something about you and who you were that she saw and that maybe you didn't even see in yourself yet, but she saw some sort of potential in you and she decided that she wanted to help you. And so,

You know, these, like I said, these things and this kindness that people can show you, it just really goes a long way. Like she literally changed potentially the trajectory of your life by doing it. I mean, and that just goes to show you what the potential is for individuals to have impact on other individuals. You know, it's so, so important.

Jim Reynolds (08:03.1)
100%. 100%.

Jim Reynolds (08:15.422)
Yes. Yes.

Ramon Vela (08:18.008)
So thank you for sharing that. I mean, that's a great story. I love that. it sounds like you've had this amazing career. I don't know how far back you want to go, but I always like to find out from people a little bit about them and what led up to where they are today. like where were you and what was your background a little bit and what led you to Cocoa 5?

Jim Reynolds (08:45.222)
So what's interesting is my career is as an investment banker, my professional life. I own a firm called Loop Capital Markets, which is a investment bank, middle market investment bank in Chicago. But coming up, really getting involved in finance. When I think about the arc of my career and my trajectory, I would love sports. I thought, you know, coming out of middle school, high school, college, playing basketball.

that, you I just wanted to play basketball and do that. I had an amazing evening. It's an epiphany, if you will. If you'd indulge me, I'll tell you the story. It's a story I love to tell. It was a day I had a tough practice. In those days, both my boys played, my sons played D1 basketball. So I know.

the amount of time you have to put in to play basketball in college. I knew it back when I played and they play. Scholarships are not free. I think people think, he's going to college for free. No, that's definitely not true. But I was coming back from a two a day practice, that done the morning practice and the evening practice. And I was walking home from the cafeteria to my dorm room.

And that night, just this one, and I had done that walk maybe 200 nights before, maybe 200 nights. Um, and right after cafeteria, cause that's where I always went. ate cafeteria, then went to my door, uh, unless we were doing something else. But this night I walked past the library, which let's say I walked past that same library Ramon 200 times. Um, and I looked up in the library.

Ramon Vela (10:30.69)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (10:36.15)
And when I looked up in the library, I saw my fellow students studying. And they looked like they were having the most fun, such a fabulous time. I looked. And as I said, I'd done that walk so many times before, but I looked up there and then I thought about me and basketball. I was a straight C student, I think, at the time. I'm not even sure if the teachers, you know, decide.

I don't even know if they read my exams or just put a straight C on there. I don't know. But when I looked up there and saw that, I said to myself, said, Jim, I think you need to be up there, not on the basketball court. You need to, and I never actually would go to the library, even though I passed it every night. And so that night I decided, Jim, you got to go to the library and you got to quit basketball, which was a very

Ramon Vela (11:22.957)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (11:31.678)
big decision for me. just did it on my own. didn't talk to anybody. And so that next day I quit. went to the coaches and told them I'm leaving the team. But the deal I made with myself was that time I spent playing and practicing basketball, I was just going to replace it with studying. That's all I was going to do, study. No more, no less, just the same time I spent in basketball. I went from a straight C student to pretty much a straight A student.

It was so fast, so quick, that even my professors didn't believe it. And I'll share one more story with you. I'm a storyteller Ramon, you probably like you. I had a Spanish test. I'll never forget it. And it was a test that I always got. The highest was a C. And it was after I made this transition, I took the test and got a perfect score.

Ramon Vela (12:09.699)
Mm-hmm.

Ha!

Jim Reynolds (12:27.998)
And so the professor came to me and she said, Mr. Reynolds, you got 100 % on this test. I'm like 19, 20 years old. I'm oh, great. Wonderful. She says, only this one small problem, Mr. Reynolds. She I don't believe you took this test. I said, well, I took the test. We were all sitting here. And she said, no, we're going to come back and you're going to take this test again. You and me in the classroom right in front. As I think about it now,

Ramon Vela (12:47.222)
I'm

Jim Reynolds (12:58.554)
I would have probably been as suspicious as she was because I just wasn't performing at that level. But I took it, got the same score and then left. But that's how quickly the transition was. And from that moment on, from that moment on and that decision, that night, it changed the trajectory of my entire life. That night, that decision, everything changed.

Ramon Vela (13:03.81)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (13:24.876)
Wow. And, and, if you don't mind, I'd love to dive into that a little bit more. What, what was it about seeing your friends in the library? and you know, I'm assuming you love basketball, you're spending all this time practicing and go and practice and et cetera. But what was it that, that, what was that factor? Was it because you felt like you thought you can make a bigger difference in

in your with yourself and in the world by following an educational path or I mean, I don't know. I'm putting words in your mouth. So what was that that really was the factor like when you saw them up there, what did you think? What was going in your head?

Jim Reynolds (14:09.07)
It's very interesting because you have to couple it with the fact that I was performing at a C level. And I knew I was much smarter than that. I mean, I knew it. I just didn't do it because the other basketball players didn't do it. And it was sort of a fit in type of thing. But I knew on that night.

And it had been eating at me a little bit, Ramon, up till then that, Jim, you're C student, sometimes C minus, and you're doing all this basketball stuff. I think you should let yourself go free. And when I say go free, be as good as you could be in the things you really care about. And I had really ceased to care that much about basketball. I I still kept playing, but not for the team.

Ramon Vela (14:58.925)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (15:01.17)
And I said, I think you're supposed to do the best you can in what you're here for, the academics. And it was the first time I had actually liberated myself to be the best student that I could be. And I became one of the top students in the school. And it was just an amazing experience getting the accolades that I got. It was so incredible. I went back up to the school. They put me on the Hall of Fame.

Ramon Vela (15:30.53)
Hehehe.

Jim Reynolds (15:30.59)
uh, back up there and all the deans that, know, when they saw this transition, uh, sought me out, asked me to do so many things, assisted me even more in studying overseas. I became recommended for virtually everything that I wanted, uh, in that school because I really, and it's a lesson I talk to, I speak a lot. I speak to a lot of young people a lot in my firm.

put a lot of young people on Wall Street. It's a big deal for me in my investment bank. And so I really talked to them about the effort that they need to put in. In my early case, I was putting a lot of effort in the basketball, but prioritizing what's right for you or what makes the most sense for you. Once I got my prioritization straight, a lot of other things fell into line.

Ramon Vela (16:18.902)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it sounded like you took that discipline and that rigor that you were applying to your basketball training to now your school studies. And yeah, and it almost feels like, and I'm just reading between the lines. So I'm again, I may be putting words into your mouth, but it almost feels like you, you have this feeling.

Jim Reynolds (16:33.265)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (16:47.392)
You have this gnawing feeling, as you mentioned, that you could do better, that you had more to offer than what you were offering the world and yourself. And you probably have like already a very curious mind, but you were holding yourself back. And I don't know, like you said, it kind of bothered you a little bit, but that's, think, you know, you, you, you're subconscious.

Jim Reynolds (16:52.382)
Right.

Ramon Vela (17:16.832)
was edging you and trying to encourage you and eventually culminated into that one day where you had this epiphany. But the reality is that you probably had just this very curious mind. You wanted to learn. You felt like you had so much to offer and so much to learn and until it just happened. I mean, and that's why that whole change.

you know, happened so quickly because in your mind, I think you probably already were, were kind of ready for it. Your, your mind was already, your subconscious was already trying to tell you this all along. And then I just think, you know, that, that sometimes our minds, you know, have to push us or have to give us this, you know, this epiphany in order to get us to do the next step. Right.

Jim Reynolds (18:06.174)
You know, Ramon, you see it a lot now with young people. can tell you at that time, I was 19, 20 years old, where you just want to fit in with your friends. You want to kind of be one of them with the group, going places, doing things. And a lot of my friends weren't study types of people. They were sports types of people, basketball type people. And by the way, they remained my friends, but performing at the highest academic level was not something that was a proprietary.

priority for them. And so I kind of went in that direction and I talk a lot about it. I dummied myself down. I knew what I was capable of, but I wouldn't spend the time with the book because they did it. And so I literally dummied myself down to fit in. And I look back at it now. I have never done it since.

Ramon Vela (18:45.518)
Hmm.

Jim Reynolds (19:02.558)
And as a matter of fact, I've gone to the opposite extreme of prioritizing my life and my day with those things that are important going all out. That's what I do. Cocoa Five, and you heard as we get into it, Cocoa Five is an example of that. My other businesses are examples of that because when you apply yourself and you study it,

You know, I knew nothing about CPG. I knew nothing about owning a brand and doing, I knew about working hard. I knew about learning what you needed to learn. I had zero experience in this business, but we really figured it out. I got a good team around me. They see me work that people talk about. If you work with Jim Reynolds, you're working.

Cause Jim's going to reach out to you Friday night, Saturday morning, Sunday, interrupt you at church. You got to call him back. then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you're going to be on it. That lesson about putting it out there. I'll have plenty of time Ramon to retire when I'm done. All right. There'll be plenty and I'm not, and I'm not rushing for that. I, I kind of like the effort that really, really crystallized itself.

that night in 1973.

Ramon Vela (20:30.258)
Yeah, and you know, and I think, think that's a really great, I can see how you like to speak to people because so many of us, it doesn't, and it doesn't, doesn't have to be friends that we, that we follow and that we want to be a part of, you know, that group or whatever. It could be for other reasons too, but many of us play, play it small and

We make ourselves smaller because we don't want to stand out because maybe we, like you, like maybe we want to fit into that group or even because maybe they just don't have that confidence, you know, to stand out and to reach for the things that they know they can do. They're playing small. And again, it's like, feel like our minds and our subconscious know better, but we tap

Jim Reynolds (21:07.517)
Bye.

Ramon Vela (21:28.578)
tamped down, right? We try to resist, we try not to listen, but eventually, hopefully, something pops through and then we make that decision to say, you know what, I'm not gonna play it small anymore. I'm gonna reach for whatever the things that I know I can do. And that's what happened to you. But your message, I think, is pretty cool because I think a lot of people can learn from it because I think a lot of people do play small. mean, there's a whole...

Jim Reynolds (21:56.36)
There's no doubt.

Ramon Vela (21:57.544)
There's a phrase, right, in literature, what is it? Living in quiet desperation. That whole idea is because we are living in quiet desperation because we're not playing, we're playing it small, we're not playing it the way that we think we can. And so, yeah, I mean, just think the story is very inspirational. So I appreciate you sharing that.

Jim Reynolds (22:07.42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jim Reynolds (22:21.544)
Thank you. thank you. No, it's one of my favorite ones. You know, the best stories, Ramon, are the true ones. The ones that actually happened. You know, they're better than anything you could make up. And so that one is one that I still think about like it was yesterday. And I'll tell you something that's really bizarre. My son was a D1 player at Rice basketball, and he called me at almost the exact same time.

Ramon Vela (22:33.795)
Yeah.

Jim Reynolds (22:52.01)
some, he's 32 now, so some, let's call it, you know, 30 some years later, or 40 years later, and says, Dad, I want to leave the basketball team. It was bizarre. It was almost to the week that I did it in 1973. He said, Dad, I want to leave the basketball team. I want to get my scholarship back. I want to do some other things. said, Hey, okay, go ahead. I can relate to that.

Ramon Vela (22:58.893)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (23:07.438)
Hehehe.

Ramon Vela (23:17.858)
Yeah. Yeah, that's fun. That's interesting. So, okay. So you had this investment firm and how did that lead? Were you already taking active participation in the investments that you were doing or with, I know there's all sorts of different styles of investment banking and so forth. So.

Jim Reynolds (23:20.549)
You

Jim Reynolds (23:42.27)
.

Ramon Vela (23:44.322)
Were you already taking active participation in businesses? Were you working as part of the operational team in any of the businesses? Or was Cocoa 5, or was there something special about Cocoa 5 that you felt like, hey, I need to be involved?

Jim Reynolds (24:01.522)
the latter, it was something very special about Cocoa Five. So I've always been a health nut. I'm six to 185 pounds. I've been six to 185 pounds for, you know, 30 years. I don't gain weight. I don't lose much. I stay the same. I go to the gym every single day. I work out.

I take no pills. had no blood pressure. There's absolutely nothing wrong with me. And I started drinking coconut water in the right about the time folks started discovering it. That's called for me. It was the late nineties, early two thousands. I drank it for the hydration, for the electrolytes that are in coconut water. There it's actually very good for you. It's very rich in electrolytes.

and potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, and you get that in that. But coconut water always tasted nasty. I mean, most people will say coconut water tastes nasty, but I drank it anyway for those benefits. Then in 2010 or 11, one of my people that worked with me brought me a Coco 5 just out of the blue.

Ramon Vela (25:08.952)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (25:26.31)
He brought me a Coco 5 as brand that was out there. No distribution. I drank it. I tasted it. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it was coconut water product. Tasted good. It's the only coconut water that I ever have seen. It tastes good. If you see our advertising now, the advertising says Coco 5 is what coconut water wishes it tasted.

Ramon Vela (25:38.722)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (25:56.286)
And that's what we hear from a lot of people. So I invested sight unseen in 2011 in Cocoa 5. It was a mom and pop operation. They couldn't grow it. And so in 2021, they were in a position where they needed to raise capital. About that time, because I was such a believer in the product and health-wise,

I had actually started some of my son's friends drinking it and my son being a basketball player, Devin Booker, D'Angelo Russo, a lot of these players. Charles Barkley is a friend of mine. I give it to Charles. You don't have to play this part so we can lose some weight. delete that, Justin. No, you can't. You're not joking about it. And he's lost about 45 pounds now. He looks good. Michael Wilbon.

Ramon Vela (26:35.939)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (26:51.918)
Derrick Rose and so they were drinking the product and D'Angelo has a refrigerator full of credit. He's been he loves it Devin loves it So we decided to come in and buy the majority of the company We just we just drank it not be from the business. There's a this great product. We just we drink it. Let's do it We moved the company to Arizona where Devin obviously plays for the Suns

Just signed a big contract. He's now, think, the highest paid player in the NBA now. He was like 19 then, know, something like that, 20, 21. And we decided to take it to Arizona where the population there is an extraordinarily healthy population. They over index in healthy beverages. I have a place there in Scottsdale, and if you go out every morning, every morning, bicyclists by the hundreds, joggers, hikers.

Ramon Vela (27:27.971)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (27:38.466)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (27:52.39)
walkers, they're very active there. And so we moved the company there.

Ramon Vela (27:58.094)
And so I love this story because so many times you see you hear of people and actually I think there was just some sort of some sort of story in the out of the EU where some celebrities they they realize that the celebrities weren't even trying trying the product and they have some like they have some special advertising rules over there in the in the in the EU but

Jim Reynolds (28:17.182)
yeah.

Ramon Vela (28:25.976)
But the point is that so many times people will, it will be unauthentic, right? They might support a product or be advertised for the product, but they don't use it. It just feels so much more authentic when someone loves the product already and says, hey, I wanna be a part of this because I love this product so much. It doesn't feel strange or weird that I'm advertising for it or.

promoting it or drinking it in public, whatever it is, because it's real, right? So I love that part of what your story was, but I'm wondering what was it about Arizona? Was it business-wise better for you guys? Was it closer to the operations? Was it just the location? mean, was there any, from a business perspective, was that part of the decision-making?

Jim Reynolds (29:18.422)
Purely business at the time, Devin, and Devin still is playing for the Phoenix Suns. Devin was the, probably still is, the most popular individual in Arizona.

Ramon Vela (29:31.234)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (29:33.074)
Maybe Taylor Swift might have them beat about now. She's from there too, but they might be neck and neck. And we wanted to take it to where he was and take advantage of his presence and his popularity there. So he actually, brought it there. The CEO at the time was anxious to move there. He moved there with his family.

Ramon Vela (29:35.018)
Ha ha ha ha.

Jim Reynolds (29:57.694)
And we settled there because of the demographics as I told you they drink a lot. It's hot there It's probably 112 degrees there today. And so they they drink a lot of hydration beverages So we brought the company there and Devon really became a major spokesman. So the company is still is To say that he drinks is an understatement. He's got a refrigerator full now D'Angelo Russell, he's got a refrigerator dedicated to cocoa

Ramon Vela (30:05.486)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (30:19.426)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (30:25.454)
You

Jim Reynolds (30:25.5)
Derrick Rose has it every single day. And the Morris Brothers, Marcus and Marquis, drink it. we all, and I drink it every day. I got a refrigerator full. When you talk about celebrities representing the product, but don't drink it, it's interesting. That's one of the things that really propelled Coca-Fibre to popularity. It was invented by the trainer of the Black Hawks for the Hawks.

Ramon Vela (30:51.053)
Mm.

Jim Reynolds (30:54.238)
to have something that was hydrating them, but didn't have all the dyes and chemicals and all of that. And so he actually didn't want them drinking Gatorade and things like that. But Gatorade has the contract for these teams, so their bottles have to be out all the time. And so someone found out that the Blackhawks were taking the Gatorade bottle, pouring out the Gatorade and putting Cocoa 5 in there.

Ramon Vela (31:22.68)
You

Jim Reynolds (31:23.39)
And I think it was a year they won the Stanley Cup. And so was like, they were drinking Cocoa Five. That's what put Cocoa Five on the map. You can actually Google it. Like what's in the Gatorade, Bob? And it's a crane story and they'll come out with the story on Cocoa Five being in the Gatorade.

Ramon Vela (31:41.262)
That is, like you can't pay for that kind of marketing, right? Like that's just something that happens. Yeah.

Jim Reynolds (31:46.758)
No, no, that was, it was legendary. It was legendary after that. It was, that one you couldn't pay for. You couldn't script it. You know, they did it, that was done right. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (31:57.068)
Yeah, I love that. okay. So, so, by the way, let me just make sure the audience knows. So people out there, if you're listening to this, you can go to, coco five.com that's C O C O the number five.com is the website coco five.com is the website. And so, all right. So, so you got this going and, and I'm assuming now you guys were assisting with, you know, like,

Jim Reynolds (32:14.206)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (32:25.848)
publicate, you know, like the usage of it was sort of like advertising and so forth. Where do you feel, what did you and your team instill now beyond just, of course, the players and the people who are doing it? Was there anything that you guys instilled or added to the operations that...

kind of took the brand now to the next level because you can have all this really great awareness and brand, but obviously it's a business, right? And so many businesses have failed because they weren't ready for the scaling and the growth. What did you guys do to help out with that part of it as well?

Jim Reynolds (32:56.359)
Right.

Jim Reynolds (33:05.403)
Well, a lot failed because of what you just said, Ramon, the scaling and growth, but a lot failed too, because they don't have enough money to last while they're trying to figure out how to grow in that business. None of us had experience in CPG, as in zero. We just had a product we liked to drink, and we assumed other people would too. When we went to Arizona, we...

Ramon Vela (33:18.584)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (33:25.122)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (33:34.298)
settled in a partnership with one store of fries in Arizona, like 120 stores there, and we had Whole Foods Midwest, and we still have both of them. We made every conceivable mistake that you can make in CPG. In CPG, there's a cadre of individuals that for retainer will teach you how to do everything, and they will teach you nothing except how to hire them for retainer. They will

Ramon Vela (33:57.614)
Mm-hmm.

you

Jim Reynolds (34:03.624)
clip you. And we got stuck in some of that with certain brokers and certain PR people and consultants in that. And so we made all those mistakes. But, you know, this group obviously is a well-heeled group and we had enough financials to work our way through that, to get through that. What we figured out, and there's been some amazing surprises.

Even though we had all these elite athletes that were owners of this brand, Hall of Fame athletes, Derrick's in the Hall of Fame, Charles Barkley's in the Hall of Fame, Michael Wilbon, most popular TV show on ESPN every night, he's in the Journalism Hall of Fame, Devon's gonna be in the Hall of Fame, all of these guys. Our buyer is a mother, it's a woman. 25 to 50.

Generally, she's healthy. 70 to 70 or 80 % of our customers are mothers buying for their kids. I was in a restaurant in Phoenix the other day and there was a woman sitting next to me and I had my hat on this hat, my Coco 5 hat, and my partner did too and we were having a breakfast, sort of an impromptu meeting about breakfast to talk about distribution and the brand. And a woman next to us at Three Kids.

One woman, three kids, her husband was, her husband happened to be, and we didn't know this till later, the head coach for the Arizona Cardinals. We didn't know. She was sitting next to us, but she saw us with our hats on and she says, you guys use Coco 5? Yeah, we own Coco 5. We're co-CEOs of Coco 5. She says, my God, I love it. My kids love it. had three kids. Coco comes in six flavors. So everybody picks their own flavor, orange, cherry.

Ramon Vela (35:43.426)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (35:53.732)
Lyman, pineapple, coconut. And she says, my kids love it. I order it by the case. They won't let us run out and each has their own flavor. Each kid named their flavor. I like the orange. I like the Jerry. I like the Lyman. And we were talking because we got a new marketing agency because we had had on all of our marketing, our players and all their accolades on the basketball court.

and their Instagram followers and all that. And it hit us and we were talking about, that's our customer right there. This lady, she knew who Charles Barkley was, but had never seen him play a game of basketball, probably never cared to see him play a game of basketball. May not have seen Devon, but they liked the product. so I would go, Ramon, I would go, I started going and just standing in grocery stores.

Ramon Vela (36:28.643)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (36:37.005)
Hehehehe

Jim Reynolds (36:50.482)
just looking around a grocery store. And I don't know if you've ever done that. I've never done it like this. But if you go to a grocery store and stand there look around, about 70 or 80 % of the people in there are women, mothers, shopping for their family. There's no guys walking around and an occasional bachelor picking up a steak or something that takes a hot dog. It's mothers shopping for their families. And we kind of hit it just like guys.

Ramon Vela (37:04.076)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (37:19.772)
You know, and our ad agency helped us. You're speaking to the wrong audience. So we went and market it differently, moved out of the sports section, which was a major thing for us. Ramon, in terms of our marketing, when you're a drink like we are. And they put you in with Gatorade, Body Armor, all that stuff. Those guys could almost give their pretend 10 for $10, you know, 50 cents a piece, name it.

And you're in there with them, it's a crowd you don't want to be at. So we really got in with coconut water, flavored drinks, health drinks. And then things just began to turn for us. We started addressing our audience. Everything just took off. The retailers began to call us. Our numbers exploded. Because the trick was, we knew we had, if you drink Coco 5, if you taste it, you will love it.

Ramon Vela (37:52.525)
Mmm.

Jim Reynolds (38:20.026)
And most kids have no idea that they're actually drinking something that's good for them. Six natural ingredients, vegan, organic. It's like all of the things, the electrolytes, the potassium, all of the healthy things you want in your body. Like, put no garbage in my body, none. And when you look at the players, they can't put anything in their body because their body is their, that's their company.

Ramon Vela (38:25.964)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (38:48.62)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (38:49.278)
And so when we bring that down and make it taste good to a mom and her kids, and they're talking about it, sharing it, it tastes, it's great. And that's really been a big part of the secret to us. You know, I look and I just being an investment banker, I've seen a lot of businesses and we're fortunate. We're one of the key things about business, no matter what. And the failure rate for new businesses within the first couple of years is about 90%. Is they may have the right idea, but they run out of money before they.

Ramon Vela (39:18.424)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (39:19.74)
because experience is something you have to have in order to understand. You have to have it and you have to have enough capital to make it through so you can get enough experience to then pivot as you need to pivot and then get to the right thing. You know, I listened to a lot of podcasts on the Alipop and Pabi and Liquid Death and all of these brands. And most of them always went through the same thing, a few years of not much.

Ramon Vela (39:36.078)
Hmm.

Jim Reynolds (39:49.456)
and then an inflection point occurs. But they have to make it to that inflection point for it to occur. And then they get on a growth trajectory, which is what COGLE-5 is on right now.

Ramon Vela (40:00.526)
Yeah, yeah, no, I get it. and, um, you, hearing you tell that story, I almost feel like, you know, like it's a shame. Well, it shouldn't be a shame because I know that ultimately, regardless of whether you start off in a niche area, you always want to strive to have more mass market appeal. Like you want to grow your market share, you want to grow your market, your, you know, and so forth. So it's great that, that, that these women,

Jim Reynolds (40:09.79)
Thank

Jim Reynolds (40:21.053)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (40:28.606)
or your core consumers, but it just feels like on one side of it, it's like, Hey, you got all these really amazing basketball players that you'd imagine more athletes would take. And I'm sure they do, but yeah. And, but it just feels like it's just interesting how that, how this other, other market, this core market, it turns out is really the one finding this value in this product. And I think it really, I think also has to do with

Jim Reynolds (40:38.822)
And they do. They do.

Ramon Vela (40:57.538)
just like the trends of health and wellness, you know, in terms of how it makes you feel, how it makes you look, you know, it's different and, you it's natural, has good, you know, ingredients and so forth. So I think it kind of follows that. I've noticed from a health and wellness perspective, even though men of course care about their health as well, I just noticed that women play a huge role from a consumer perspective on the health and wellness market.

Jim Reynolds (41:11.239)
So now.

Ramon Vela (41:25.81)
And I think that's probably part of it, you know, that they see that. And then, of course, they want to extend that house to their kids. And of course, kids, you know, like if the product doesn't taste good, I've always I've often told this to people. this happens to me sometimes, too. And sometimes people will send products to me to take to try it and I will put it in my fridge or, you know, put it put it in the kitchen somewhere. And and if I if my kids, my daughter in particular, my teenage daughter, if she

is eating it without me asking her to do it and she continues to eat it. It's like, know that it's a good product because it good tastes good because she, and this happens with kids is that they're unvarnished in their opinion. Like if they don't like something, they're not going to really eat it. Yeah. And it has to taste good. as a parent, you want them, you know, because they might, in school and in friend's house, they might have some soda, whatever it is.

Jim Reynolds (42:01.854)
That's right.

Jim Reynolds (42:09.681)
Sure are. They're spitting it out. They may spit it out right in front of you.

Ramon Vela (42:25.336)
They're naturally just attracted to the sweetness and all of that. But if you can find a product that they love, it tastes good, but it's also good for them and it hydrates them and provides them all this other electrolytes and everything else, then that's like a win-win for a parent and for you as a CPG brand. So I think that's pretty cool. I love this. I love that story. sure.

Jim Reynolds (42:51.506)
Well, you know, one of the things, excuse me, one of the things Ramon is for kids, can't, you can't lead with it's good for you. Drink this because it's good for you. That actually comes secondary. First, the kids drink it because they like it and it tastes good and they request it. They have no idea that it's actually natural ingredients, coconut water based, no chemicals, no dyes. Good for you.

Ramon Vela (43:12.014)
We're

Jim Reynolds (43:18.994)
They don't find out till later if they do find out at all that it's actually a health drink. And the moms really like that. They really like

Ramon Vela (43:24.45)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (43:28.546)
Yeah. And so from a distribution standpoint, have you guys now taken this product, of course, retailers, you mentioned some retailers and so forth, but have you, have you now taken it to other channels? mean, are you guys selling it D2C? it on the marketplaces like Amazon? Are you guys also, this also seems to me like a really great product to also have a influencer for TikTok.

you know, to have a showcase on TikTok and social media because it's cool, packaging looks great. And then of course it's good for you because it's like a beverage, but it's also like a health and wellness type of product as well.

Jim Reynolds (44:08.83)
That's right. That's right. So we did something Ramon that was critical early on. And it came from just my reading and listening to podcasts. When we first got going, we got national interest. Walmart, for instance, gave us, we had talked to Walmart about a few hundred stores in the Southwest. They gave us

2150 stores and they gave it to us in Arizona, Wyoming, Kentucky, Montana, know, Alabama, all of these places that we knew we couldn't market. We sat down and I said, God, we need to be narrow and deep. I'd rather be narrow and deep.

instead of being broad and shallow, which is the best we could have done excepting all those markets. We went back to Walmart and this may have been the first time this ever happened to them. They seemed to be shocked. And I asked them, said, can you take us out of 2150 stores and just give us these 240, 250 stores in our footprint that we know we could excel in?

They gasped, they were a little shocked. And then they said something to me as we had, and they've become an amazing partner. They said, Jim, I'll tell you something. Walmart can grow your business or Walmart can put you out of business. You've got to be smart about it. We decided to cut out a lot of the national stuff.

Ramon Vela (45:53.23)
You

Jim Reynolds (46:04.062)
We were down in Florida, Texas and all that other stuff. And we decided to own the Southwest, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, the West coast, California, that, and we got deep and we are deep. Like in Arizona, you can't go five minutes without being able to buy a Coke or five in either direction, everywhere.

And then we started, you know, expanding that out, expanding that out. Charles Barkley is now our national spokesman. So Charles Barkley is the A-list celebrity. He's like A of the A of the A. And Charles is an owner, you know, and I think he ran out of Dunkin' Donuts and Taco, the Taco Bell and all that other stuff he was doing. You know, he's doing Coco 5 now. It's national. So you'll start seeing his new stuff.

Ramon Vela (46:44.59)
you

Ramon Vela (46:56.814)
you

Jim Reynolds (47:04.07)
with the brand and it's great because he's an owner. now, now we're spreading out. So we're now big in Texas, big in Florida, Minnesota. So we're spreading it out, going deeper. But when we go to a new market, Ramon, and it took, it takes a while to understand this, particularly a new brand, go to a market where you can actually cover that market. Your merchandising people are there.

Your cold packers are there. Your delivery channels there because freight when you ship water is the most expensive thing you can't even imagine what it costs to ship a case of water. And if you're doing them by the thousands, it gets expensive. So we really got real smart about it. We got smart about our cars, which retailers actually have the people coming inside that care about our product, know, discerning product that want to help.

Ramon Vela (47:41.549)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (47:46.38)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (47:50.487)
Hmm.

Jim Reynolds (48:02.014)
oriented product. Or do they want a can of soda pop that costs, you know, 30 cents, know, something like that, 50 cents, whatever the thing is. And so those things, and to the other parts, hotels now, we're in. We're in a lot of fitness clubs, a lot of yoga studios, fitness, we're in Chicago, we're in Chicago, the biggest club here, probably the biggest in the country, is called the East Bank Club.

Ramon Vela (48:07.864)
Hmm.

Jim Reynolds (48:29.362)
We're a major seller there. Healthy people. If you're in a health club, you're there for a reason. And you don't want to go through all that, come down to the cafe and get a can of pop. And so now Cocoa Five is doing that. We're looking at cruise ships. We just cemented a deal to get today to go international on duty free shops. And so, we've been Ramon, the discipline that we've had to exercise is not.

Try to go everywhere and be all things to all people and try to chase every dollar because invariably you're gonna lose playing that game. Go to where you could fit in and where you could support your product that makes sense and then expand later.

Ramon Vela (49:16.334)
Yeah, I love that, that, that strategy. And I have seen, I've had people tell me that before in the past, where, you know, you know, you know, do very well in your backyard first, because you can support those stores. Because a lot of times people forget that, their retailers are not just like these stores that just carry your product, but they're your partners, right? You have to

Jim Reynolds (49:33.597)
Yes.

Jim Reynolds (49:44.316)
Yep, they are.

Ramon Vela (49:45.39)
You have to work with them, you have to build with them, you have to support them. You have to do those taste tests and what do they call them, activations. You got to do all sorts of other stuff. So it's really important that you can support that region. But the problem is, of course, and you know this, I'm sure you've heard the horror stories, is that people, it's disciplined approach. Because people get too excited, they get passionate, they were like, I want to carry all of this.

You love PatCast, you should listen to the episode we did with, my cohost did it with Rose Hamilton, we did it with Chomps, the founders of Chomps. And they actually talk about how they, when they landed on Trader Joe's was basically their first big retailer. They thought about going out and starting getting more retailers, but they decided and said, you know what, we're going to just stick with them for a little while. We're going to learn how to support them.

Jim Reynolds (50:22.952)
Yeah.

Jim Reynolds (50:42.664)
That's right.

Ramon Vela (50:44.45)
how to grow with them, what makes this relationship successful, how to build a good relationship with people, and start off very narrow and just deal with them. then once we've got that, we have that understanding, we understand how that works, then we can start expanding. And of course, now they're a half a billion dollar company. And it's a disciplined approach. It's hard to say no. It's hard to say no.

Jim Reynolds (51:04.925)
So.

Jim Reynolds (51:11.334)
Yeah, it is. It is. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (51:13.986)
You you love your product, you want to be out there, so.

Jim Reynolds (51:17.182)
But you know, when you think about it, and Ramon, and you said this, you have to treat your customer, your retailer, like your partner. That was a brilliant strategy to go in Trader Joe's and stay there and form a partnership relationship, which is what we have with a lot of our stores. They're partnerships because if you think about it on essence at its face, you and the retailer have the exact same goal.

Ramon Vela (51:36.11)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (51:47.098)
You want to sell your product and they want to sell your product. So I mean, it's like they are you are 100 % alive. So you want to make sure you understand all the things that they allow you to do to sell your product. Like there's so many things for the uninitiated that you don't know. And a few things that you learn. One, if you're in the cooler and a product like that, your sales go up.

Ramon Vela (51:51.106)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (52:16.397)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (52:16.892)
And you have to be able to have that relationship to talk about Cooler's Place. If you have a secondary, a secondary location, a shipper, a display, your sales go up. Where you are on the shelf, Ramon, are you eye level? Are you over this woman's head? Are you the bottom shelf? How many times, Ramon, have you gone to a store and bought something off the bottom shelf?

Ramon Vela (52:38.403)
Thank

Ramon Vela (52:45.964)
Yeah, it's hard unless you're looking for it.

Jim Reynolds (52:47.462)
It's hard. it's like, so you have to know so many things and you have to have a relationship with your retailer partner to say, Hey, can I be at eye level? The difference in being at eye level versus the bottom shelf is dramatic in terms of sales. There's so many things Ramon that you have to learn before you become a national brand.

Ramon Vela (53:08.078)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (53:16.454)
Now when we go into a store and we're going and we're very, we're very thoughtful. We're going, can we have secondary displays? Can we be at eye level? Can you put us in the cooler? Can I put Charles Barkley's post around here? Can I show Devin Booker over here? Can you know, you want to be able to talk to your retailing partner about these things early. When we first started, we didn't know how to ask any of those questions. It was like,

you're going to take us in your store? Great, we won. Let's celebrate. That's not the total reason to celebrate.

Ramon Vela (53:48.151)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (53:54.348)
Yeah, yeah. and those are just, you just listed just some of the things because there's also packaging and what goes on the packaging and what type of packaging that I've talked to people about. They went from bottle and then to can, which was like life-changing in terms of their velocity. And then, or you have a carton or whatever that is, or what do you even put on the carton? You put...

Jim Reynolds (54:01.569)
yeah.

Ramon Vela (54:19.758)
Do you emphasize the fruit and the flavor? There's all sorts of little things and you're constantly trying to figure out what's gonna be better to do it. So yeah, so there's a lot that goes in there. By the way, I was just gonna say about Charles Barkley. I remember when he was a player and obviously he's so famous for him and his personality and all of that. But I think, kind of feel like nowadays he's kind of like transcended basketball, right? He's like.

Jim Reynolds (54:46.18)
yes. yeah.

Ramon Vela (54:46.971)
He's just a public figure now, so it's pretty cool.

Jim Reynolds (54:50.974)
Ramon, when we go out, Charles and I, if we go out to dinner, he sits in one of the most, so usually when you go out with these players, they want to get a back room, closed off, away from everybody. That's normally what they do. Charles sits in the most trafficked location in the restaurant, right there with everybody. You try to get through a meal. Everybody that passes wants a selfie, wants touching.

Ramon Vela (55:04.344)
you

Ramon Vela (55:17.87)
You

Jim Reynolds (55:19.294)
70 to 80 % of those people, I mean, the husbands are right behind, but 70 to 80 % are women. And of those 70 to 80%, probably 90 % of that 70 to 80 % never saw him play one basketball game. Never saw him play. They like him for the personality, his warmth, his sense of humor. I mean, and that's what's it. I'm gonna tell you another thing we discovered, which is another

Ramon Vela (55:34.818)
the

Ramon Vela (55:40.45)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jim Reynolds (55:48.222)
part and it happened because of one of our diehard drinkers. He started sharing with us stories and then one of our other investors and we get letters, seniors, senior citizens. I had no knowledge of this Ramon, but a lot of seniors just don't drink a lot of water. They just don't. And I can understand it. You know, you're not drinking eight glasses of water a day, 90 or 80 something years old.

Ramon Vela (56:07.842)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (56:16.494)
and they discover Coco 5. And they drink it because, you know, water is water, but Coco 5 has got a flavor to it. So it has been, we get those letters. So now we're going into hospitals, healthcare. You know, we're partners with the American Cancer Society. Every bottle of Coco 5 we sell, we give a contribution to the American Cancer Society. And so that is another area that we're exploring. So,

Ramon Vela (56:31.726)
Hmm.

Jim Reynolds (56:45.468)
When you look at these brands and the nuances and you talk to young brands and there's so many different things that you could do as you kind of get out here and experience things.

Ramon Vela (56:54.164)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, this is fantastic. I want to be respected every time. And there's just so much to some. mean, you're full of lots of great stories and things I want to ask you, but I also want to be respected every time. No, no, this is fantastic. No, this is fascinating. I mean, I think at this point, like a lot of people are.

Jim Reynolds (57:07.454)
I'm a storyteller, Ramona. I told you. I should have warned you.

Ramon Vela (57:19.756)
are just excited and wanting to, you if they've been listening to this episode, they're, they're excited to try it. Like I, it's been a while since I've had coconut. and I'll be honest with you. I think the last time I tried it, I think, I think I did feel like it tasted funny, but this was a few years ago. so to hear you talk about the flavor so much and everything else is, is exciting. And it's, and it's almost like, if I'm listening to this and I'm hearing you speak, I'm curious to see what it tastes like. Right. And so I think that's, that's.

Jim Reynolds (57:25.901)
yeah.

Jim Reynolds (57:48.65)
you should.

Ramon Vela (57:49.678)
That's hopefully what people are listening, feeling. So walk us through just really, really quick in terms of someone wants to, someone wants to, you know, start, well someone's beginning their journey with your brand, with your products. Where do you want them to go? Where do you want them to try? Is there a particular flavor? Like what's your favorite flavor? Is there something that, is there one product that you want them to try, one flavor?

Jim Reynolds (58:20.166)
No, because if you talk to six people, you see that you've got cherry there, pineapple, Lyman, passion fruit. And you go, if you keep going each, almost every quarter, the lineup changes as to which is the most popular. There you go on the bottom, you got natural coconut and you got orange. Some people swear by the orange. bunch of my favorite is pineapple and Lyman. you can get a mixed case as you're showing there.

Ramon Vela (58:40.365)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Reynolds (58:50.076)
You can go to our Coco 5 website and buy it directly from us. And you could get a mixed pack of all the flavors, or if you've already had it and you know you like cherry or you know you like lime and you can get a case of that. You can also go to Amazon. has it. You could sign up on a subscription for us and get it regularly and at a discount. And pretty much,

Most retailers, we're not all, but we're definitely all over Arizona, Texas. We're in Sprouts nationally, Whole Foods Midwest, Walmart, Fry's. It's a ton United down in Texas. We're in a Kroger company, Kroger. And so we have a lot of places to buy it. But if you're in a place where there's not a store, go to our website and order a case.

And if you don't know which one you like, get a mixed case. My guess is one, two, or three are gonna turn into your favorites and you'll kind of land there and get those. I appreciate that.

Ramon Vela (59:51.458)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (59:58.19)
Yeah, and I love the packaging as well. for everyone out there, he mentioned it, but you can go to that button where it says, find it nearby. So first of all, you want to go to the website, is coco5.com, coco5.com, C-O-C-O, the number 5.com. And when you're there, you can go to shop.

the shop navigation button or you can go to find it nearby. Actually, I just clicked on it right now and there's like three or four locations, areas where I can buy sprouts and target. So I'm sure there's something you can do and or just go to the website and order from there. So this is fantastic, man. And like I said, I really liked the packaging, so colorful and exciting.

Jim Reynolds (01:00:46.984)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (01:00:50.326)
All right. So people, like I said, people will listen to this. your stories are so charming, so much really great insights that you're providing. They've, they've now gone to the website. Is there anything that you want, any last words or anything you want to leave with the audience? for any of those folks who just need that little extra push, is there anything that you want to share with them or ask them to

Jim Reynolds (01:01:14.782)
Thank you,

Ramon Vela (01:01:18.083)
Go ahead.

Jim Reynolds (01:01:18.226)
Boy, I would say Ramon, for us, you know, we kind of could have left it alone, but get started. I mean, if you've got your passion here and whether it's this or whether it's something else, get started. Make sure you understand the rules of engagement. You know, I talk to people all the time. They may not have their finances right or their partners right or learn as much as you can about that area. I we were lucky.

because our investors are such that we could make a lot of mistakes and not be fatal. We wouldn't worry about shutting down. But you want to make sure you learn as much as you can, but when you lean into it, pivot. Don't be scared to pivot. Like I told you, we were everywhere when we decided to go to Walmart. I don't know how many people would do that and say, give me fewer stores. Give me fewer, because we'll sell more and fewer.

Ramon Vela (01:01:52.43)
Yeah.

Jim Reynolds (01:02:13.99)
And you know, those sorts of things and those pivoting are incredibly helpful. We're moving to a powder, aluminum, and always continue to kind of evolve with what you learn and what your consumers want. But keep that consumer first. We changed everything when we figured out who our consumer was. these big, NBA basketball players aren't fine, but 70 or 80 % of our people are mothers, women, buying for their kids. And that's a whip here.

Ramon Vela (01:02:42.988)
Yeah, well, I love that. And then I would just add from early on in our interview, just reminding people not to play it small, right? You have a lot more to offer than you probably think. And your story in the beginning really, really is a great inspiration for that because, like I said, there's a lot of people who have so much to offer, but they play it small. And so, yeah, I love that.

Jim Reynolds (01:02:53.693)
That's right.

Ramon Vela (01:03:10.786)
That's a great one. really love that story. this has been fantastic. James, having you on the show, listening to the stories, learning about this product. So I truly appreciate it. I love, like I said, it sounds so exciting to me. And I think if anyone's coconut water and maybe tried one of those other products or one of the other brands that where it doesn't taste all that well, and maybe you decided to give up on it, I don't know.

Jim Reynolds (01:03:12.958)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (01:03:40.738)
I mean, I think I'm gonna give it another try based on just this conversation. You should probably do, give it a try, see what it tastes like. Because I think this has been about two or three years, I think, since I tried one, but I remember it not being the best taste and thinking like, okay, well, this is good, but you gotta be dedicated to drink this. But obviously the taste is great. It has to be really good. And this is what our tagline is, James. Products worth buying because a product always has to...

Jim Reynolds (01:03:42.994)
Yeah, right.

Jim Reynolds (01:03:58.604)
yeah.

Ramon Vela (01:04:09.486)
be efficacious, has to be good, it has to taste good. So it's products worth buying, brands worth supporting, and I think you guys meet that mark. So thank you for being on the show.

Jim Reynolds (01:04:18.642)
Thank you. Ramon, thanks so much for having me. Much appreciated. I hope you and your audience got a couple of tidbits that you can use out of our discussion. So thank you.

Ramon Vela (01:04:30.97)
definitely. you're by the way, you are now a part of the server brand family. You guys are welcome back anytime you guys want to come back and talk about new products or new formats or whatever it is. So always welcome back. Everyone else. Yeah, thank you. And everyone out there, we have just had James Reynolds, who is co CEO and co founder of Coco five. We're going to have that link, their social media, etc.

Jim Reynolds (01:04:44.286)
I look forward to it.

Ramon Vela (01:04:59.374)
We're going have all those links on our podcast description, which you can find at Apple and Spotify and pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts. Simply type in the story of our brand show and you should be able to find it. And then beyond that, everyone, as I always say, stay safe, stay sane and stay healthy. And one way in this case, one way of staying healthy is trying Coco 5. Go to the website, try, see if there's something there for you. If you have kids that sound like this is a

great drink for kids, but also just from a health and wellness perspective, you need to be hydrated, you need electrolytes, especially if you're an athlete or if you're just an active person, this is a great drink and a great, sounds like a great drink for you to try. then of course be on the lookout for all those cool advertisements with Charles Barkley and such. So go check it out. And then one last thing everyone is that we've all been going through a lot of craziness out there.

which is the first the pandemic and then politics and then geopolitical wars and economy and everything else. Let's just do ourselves a favor and remember that everyone is going through something. And if we can just be a little kinder to each other, I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.