Greco Gum - The Science Behind Your Chew

Ramon Vela (00:03.079)
Welcome back everyone. This is Ramon Vela and I have an amazing brand that I really am going to enjoy diving into. So please welcome Logan Wright, who is the co-founder of Greco Gum. Welcome to the show.

Logan (00:34.766)
Thanks for having me, Ramon. I'm very thrilled to be speaking with you today and talking a little bit about our business and what we represent and what we offer.

Ramon Vela (00:43.431)
Well, I appreciate you making time because obviously you're running a company and I know that's, you we're going to get into the weeds a little bit on that, but I know you're very busy. So I appreciate you coming in and sharing a little bit about the business and kind of letting our audience know a little bit about what goes on in the backend as well as everything about your product. So, my first question to any of my interviews is a gratitude question. And I asked this for a couple of reasons, Logan.

First reason is that I'm just a big believer in gratitude as a way to relieve stress and anxiety and a lot of people are stressed out, whether it's the economy or geopolitical wars or whatever going on. It's a little bit of a stressful time right now. So gratitude, just so everyone knows, is a great way to relieve stress and anxiety, whether you meditate, you pray, you journal, whatever it is. It's just, it's a great tool.

to and I actually even had a founder who was on the show who had, I think it was called Gardenuity and they talked about how neurologically it is impossible to have gratitude and anxiety at the same time and that's how powerful it is. So definitely want to encourage people to use that. However, I also want the listeners to know that there are real people behind these companies that we feature here on the show.

Sometimes it's easy to see a brand or a product on the retail shelf or online and just sort of think like it was just some faceless corporation. But behind many of these businesses that we feature are real people who care deeply about their product, about their customers, about their community and the product quality and all of that. And I want you to get to know the person that we're interviewing. And one great way to do that is by understanding what they're grateful for. So Logan, if you don't mind.

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, your vision, or your potential.

Logan (02:48.514)
know you like to open up with this question. So I was giving it a lot of thought. what I came back to, what I'm really grateful for is I started this business and I ran it by myself for the first year or so. And I had two young boys at home, a wife, a full-time career. And the business itself was actually quite successful, which was

challenging because I simply could not juggle everything that I had going on. And, I had mentioned this to the designer who I had worked with on the branding when I initially launched the company and he thought I was crazy for considering just shutting it down or even possibly selling it. And he convinced me that that was not the right move and that he offered to help join me and together we could build this.

because I was gonna be content just letting it ride as a little side project. And I had proven to myself that it was a success and I was okay with that. Just ending it, calling it quits and taking that little win. But it had never even occurred to me to take this into a full time leap and go all in on this. he saw the vision, he saw the potential.

And so now John, my co-founder and I, we still work together along with our other partner, Nick, and we've, we've gone all in and now it's no longer a side hustle or just a little project for us. This is where we're full time with it.

Ramon Vela (04:30.355)
Wow, that's fantastic. And, um, and you know, the funny thing is, is that, um, at one point in my career, I always, I always idolize or really looked into really, um, thought highly of sort of like the single founder, the sole founder, you know, like the, that, that one individual who's driving the business. But ever since I've started this podcast and really dove into so many different stories around brands and founders, I've come to the conclusion that it's just, it's just.

So much easier if you have co-founders. If you have a business that's viable, that's growing, and you have these co-founders, it's just on an emotional level, obviously on a financial level, but there's all sorts of different levels where it just makes so much sense to have someone to help with the business that they can contribute not only their...

skill set but also just really the weight of it all because it can be it could be very very difficult at times and especially if you have a family right

Logan (05:31.648)
Yeah, the two things you'll learn running a business is that one, it's incredibly hard to do something on your own. And two, it's incredibly hard to find good help. And so if you're able to build something up with somebody who you're on the same page with, you have the same vision, maybe they don't have the exact skill sets that you need yet. But I think it's a lot easier to build and learn those things rather than trying to outsource those and then trying to make the personalities.

match. That's, that's been the number one thing for me so far. And to your point about the balancing, it's so true because, you know, it's just like a relationship that I have with my wife. If she's feeling anxious about something, my natural reaction will be to have a more common demeanor to try and smooth things out, right? So you're always trying to find those, those counterbalances to try and keep equilibrium.

Ramon Vela (06:30.227)
Yeah. And I had one founder sort of describe it this way, that having a co-founder is kind of like, you, on one particular day, if you come in and your energy level or just your feeling or whatever, like you're running at 80 % or so, or 70 % for whatever reason, then your co-founder can kind of step in and

maybe provide that extra 30 % for that day and can kind of help you and support you in variety of different ways. The way that you would with your wife, right? If she came to you and like, hey, I'm just not feeling great today, would you mind taking the kids to school or whatever or doing something or doing some things that they might normally do or dropping them off or running some errands or whatever it is.

You as a partner and she would do the same you guys help each other, right? You guys help each other pick up the slack wherever you need to and that's kind of what a co-founder does

Logan (07:35.722)
Yeah. Accountability is huge because there are things that, you know, when I was running it by myself, I don't really feel like doing, but if I don't have anybody to answer to, there's nobody to let down, you know, I can let those things slide. But, you know, if I have other people, our co-founders, our employees who are counting on me to execute this task, then it forces me to do that. So that accountability is built in when you have these relationships.

Ramon Vela (08:03.719)
Yeah, and that's a good point. I hadn't really thought about that as well, but that definitely helps. And I've noticed that also in my own experience. So this is great. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I think that's, it's very valuable, even from a lesson standpoint for other entrepreneurs listening to your gratitude example. So.

The brand is called Greco Gum. Why don't we start off with a high level overview of the brand, what it is, and then let's work backwards. Let's start off then take us back to when you started this before you had these co-founders. Like what was the impetus of the idea? Where did it come from? Why did you call it Greco Gum? And then we'll take it from steps from there. But if you wouldn't mind like an overview.

Logan (08:56.462)
Sure, so we sell mastic gum and mastic gum is crystallized tree sap that is harvested from mastic trees which grow on an island called Chios in Greece, hence the name Greco gum. And this gum is very unique in that the only ingredient is tree sap.

There are no additives, there are no flavorings, colors, sweeteners, nothing. You the same way when you walk through the produce section at the grocery store and you pick up a banana, there is no list of ingredients there. It just is in its natural form, this raw good. And if you look at any other chewing gum in the whole world, they all have laundry lists of ingredients of all types of things you've never heard of.

you've never seen before, you don't even know how to pronounce them. You don't understand why they're in there, but they are in there. And so the reason why I got into this gum is because I had started to take my health more seriously. And, you know, once you start doing that, it has that compounding effect where...

Now I want every area of my life to be as optimized as possible. So, you know, the chemicals that you use in your face wash or your shampoo to the types of cookware that you use when you prepare your food, the groceries you buy. And I loved to chew gum while I was in the gym. And so I began searching for a healthy, natural chewing gum. And there's no shortage of

chewing gums that are marketed as natural or healthy. But the reality is, is they're still, they're still not great for you. So the reason why chewing gum is, is so bad is because it is essentially just flavored plastic. That chewy texture is created with synthetic ingredients and plasticizers, vegetable oils, polyvinyl acetate to mimic the natural chewy texture.

Ramon Vela (10:54.183)
Mm-hmm.

Logan (11:07.852)
that people have been chewing for thousands of years with all types of different tree saps. But of course, it's very difficult to produce and manufacture those things at scale, which is why they switched to the synthetic alternative. And of course, all of the artificial sweeteners and flavorings that go into that as well. And so I started going down a very, very deep rabbit hole of what is the healthiest chewing gum and...

Not to my surprise, it turns out the original chewing gum, tree sap, is the only truly healthy natural chewing gum available. And so I scoured the web trying to find a source for this gum. But at the time, you could only buy it directly from these farmers on the island. And so I reached out to a few. I was able to get my hands on a small quantity. I immediately loved it. I was hooked right away from chewing it.

And so I knew that if I liked it, then chances are there's a lot of other people out there who like it too, which basically led me to try to import as much as possible. And the challenge was that, you know, as a North American, it was very difficult to get your hands on it. Shipping times were long, very inconsistent with the quality. And so I knew that if I was able to provide this gum to North Americans with reliable shipping, reliable quality, I might have something on my hands here.

Ramon Vela (12:36.147)
And with this, the way you described it, I love it. Would you call this like a, I guess it wouldn't be a clean story or a clean ingredient story. This is more of a simple ingredient story, right? Like, you know, like I've had people who will like for instance, the real cereal company, you know, they kind of try to philosophically try to do what you're

doing which is hey you know cereal is just these two ingredients like why mess it up adding all sorts of other stuff so they just that's what they do is they focus on just the the true ingredients of what a cereal used to be and it feels like that's kind of like what you're doing but but in the gum aisle

Logan (13:23.404)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, so much of product innovation is like, what's new? Here's what we've added. Here's what we've changed. Where we're taking the complete opposite approach, where our messaging is, hey, look what's not added. Look what hasn't changed. This is the exact same thing that has been chewed for thousands of years. We're not doing anything to it other than bringing it to you.

Ramon Vela (13:47.257)
Yeah. And now, when I'm really curious, especially in light of like tariffs and all of that kind of stuff that's going on, how did you or what are you using now in terms of the source ingredient, the SAP or whatever it's called, are you still importing in it from the islands of Greece? Did you find another source? How is that working out? Like, are you able to scale with what you have?

Logan (14:15.426)
So we're in a very unique position in the fact that this gum can only come from this one small island. So every single piece of gum that we have comes from these farmers and it's harvested once per year. And the exact amount that's harvested each year can vary dramatically. It is a very finite resource. you know, depending on what happens, whether there's wildfires or there's a drought or there's a flood,

We never know what our inventory is going to look like or what the cost is going to be because that it will of course be dependent on the yield, right? So we're very used to having to be nimble and adjust

and try and manage our inventory as best as possible. So we haven't changed anything in regards to that. We're always just trying to get our hands on as much of it as we can and trying to make it stretch as far as we possibly can. And if that means that we're unable to...

sell for a few weeks or even possibly, you know, that first year, there was a couple of months where I couldn't take any orders simply because I had ran out and I couldn't get any more until next year's harvest. So there's a very real possibility of that. And thankfully that hasn't happened in quite some time.

But that also kind of adds to the allure or the lore of the product, Is that we can't just go to the factory and press a button and make more, right? It's when it's here, it's here. And when it's gone, it's gone. And enjoy it while you can. That's the good and bad of these natural organic products. You just have to appreciate them in the time that you have them.

Ramon Vela (15:40.657)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (15:58.58)
Yeah, no, I can see that. And this is a tree sap. Have you ever thought about using other sap from other places?

Logan (16:08.844)
Yeah, there actually are other, like especially birch or pine tree saps. Those have also been chewed for thousands of years, but the reason why we focus on this sap in particular is two reasons. One, there's so much well-documented medicinal benefits that comes from this sap compared to any other tree. And the other is the texture and chewing profile of it.

It's much different than any other sap or chewing gum in the fact that it has a very high resistance profile. So when you chew it, it's quite a workout for your face and jaw muscles, which is one of the major appeals. And one of the big reasons for our customers that they like it to help sculpt their facial and jaw muscles. It really is, you know, the same way you do curls for your bicep muscles, know, chewing hard things.

has the same effect on your facial muscles.

Ramon Vela (17:07.659)
yeah, that's really interesting. And I was wondering about that. And let me just mention to the folks out there. I was just on the website right now looking at it. If you want to take a look at what we're talking about, you can go to Greco gum dot com. Greco is spelled G.R.E.C.O. and then the word gum G.U.M. dot com. Greco gum dot com.

And on the website, we'll go through it on the website, but in the website, it mentions a little bit about what you just mentioned right now, that you're kind of achieving a couple of different things. There's, saw something about a gut health or a digestive health, gut check, the jaw workout and other things. And like I said, we'll go over a little bit more of the product side of it in a second, but it just feels like there is a lot of,

There's a lot of benefits from utilizing this. Because I know that sometimes some gum companies have some functionality, something that they do, but it feels like yours is a little bit different in that it's also, like you said, a jaw workout. And I wonder, you mentioned that you like to chew gum in the gym. And it feels like a little bit that your personality and your...

you do you call it? Your hobby or exercise routine or your exercise philosophy. I can kind of see it within the brand itself because I know a lot of folks who who love going out to the gym. They're also very much into like single, like a very simple ingredient type foods, whole foods where they just want like, you know, their vegetables or steak, you know, their carbohydrate or whatever. And and then, of course, the fact that this gum is so

It's almost like giving your jaw and your mouth an exercise. So I kind of see that this is very from a exercise, I don't know what you would call it, exercise philosophy type of workout type of product.

Logan (19:13.826)
Yeah, I mean, it really all just stemmed, like the brand is really an extension of my own interests, hobbies, personalities and lifestyle. You know, I mentioned at the beginning, you know, I was looking for something.

healthier to chew in the gym because I was also looking at healthier things in every aspect of my life, right? So, you know, for me, if I'm going to spend all this time in the gym, I mean, I might as well get the most out of it and I might as well give my body the best fuel and I might as well remove as many of the toxins and poisons in my life around me. And so you see that in the gum. The other thing is, you know, if I were to pull five of our customers and ask them, hey, why did you buy our gum?

I think we would get five different responses. know, somebody might say they like it because, it relieves their heartburn and indigestion because of its antibacterial and antioxidant nature. Somebody else might say that it gives them anxiety relief and somebody else might say, I like to chew it because it suppresses my appetite and I can chew it for hours at a time. And, know, the same piece. So.

It's really interesting in that regard. I hadn't really thought of these things when I initially set out to do it. It was just as the business grew, we discovered more and more of these benefits and reasons that people were enjoying it. And so that got incorporated into the marketing, but it wasn't like I had set out to do this from the get-go. It was just something that I enjoyed chewing. And as time progressed, it just got built into the brand.

Ramon Vela (20:48.007)
Yeah. Well, I mean, I love how that, that those things sort of fall into place. You know, it's almost as if to work in, the background, you know, and before you know it, you feel like, you know, in hindsight, this all makes a lot of sense and how it's fallen into place. In terms of the challenges of, well, actually let me start off with a demo because you just mentioned right now, if you were pulling customers, who were your initial customers or your target market, your demographic, how you want to describe it.

Who are your initial customers and how has that evolved?

Logan (21:22.488)
So my initial customers were basically me and my friends, right? Young guys who like to lift weights, eat a lot of beef, drink a lot of milk, you know, just gym bros who spend money on supplements. And that was it at the beginning. And it's funny now, it's probably the complete polar opposite of that group. We have a lot of older folks.

who consume Mastic because for gut health issues. So whether that's managing IBS or H. pylori or ulcers, a lot of like granola moms now too, right? Who don't want anything plastic in their life. They're always looking for the...

most organic option available to them. So it's kind of funny like bringing all of these very different groups together for different reasons. But at the end of the day, they're all still reaping the same rewards. And it's been a pretty interesting, you know, just from a, I guess, psychological perspective and how we adjust our messaging depending on the audience and the platform.

It really doesn't change that much who we're marketing to. Like at the end of the day, our core focus is always going to be the fact that this is a very simple raw ingredient that has these medicinal benefits and there's no frills or fluffs or anything other than that. We're just presenting you with this naked raw tree sap and we'll present you these reasons why we think you would enjoy chewing it.

Ramon Vela (23:09.939)
So it's almost, and that was actually, you answered my second question, which was gonna be about, how does the messaging change within these different demographics, especially since they're kind of different. Older adults may not be Jim bros, they may of course be working out if they care about their health, but they're all a little bit, they're all different. And you would think that there might be a challenge, but it sounds like what you're doing is you're leading with almost like the functionality first.

of what the gum is and what it does and then leading with that first before leading with like that particular demographic.

Logan (23:49.014)
Yeah, well, I would position it more like we're leading with what this gum isn't. It's not sweetened, it's not flavoured, you're not chewing it for its taste, you're not chewing it because it's the cheapest option available, you're not chewing it because it's easy, you know? All of these convenience factors, no, that is not who we want as a customer. We're not going after these people.

Ramon Vela (23:54.893)
Mm. Yeah.

Logan (24:13.912)
We're going after the people who are searching for the non-toxic option. They're searching for the premium option. They're searching for the most difficult or hard to find whatever option. We're taking the counter approach I think that most businesses take where we're not trying necessarily to attract customers. We're trying to repel customers and doing a lot of word of mouth or organic marketing in its place.

Ramon Vela (24:36.242)
Hmph.

Ramon Vela (24:41.959)
Wow, I love that. That's actually what you just said right now. It a very good clip. If I'm doing interviews, sometimes I listen to what people are saying, and sometimes when someone says something really interesting, I...

in my back of my mind, I'm thinking, ooh, that's gonna make a really good video clip or audio clip. But I love what you said, leading with what the gum isn't. So that's perfect quote. So in terms of all the other challenges you face, because I always like, you know, I always like for this show to be a very kind of a real account of entrepreneurship, not just like the

make believe or the stuff that you see on social media. So obviously there's a lot of challenges that you've faced, you know, not only with, with like inventory, but marketing and, you know, balance and all sorts of other things. because of all those challenges now, I'm sure you've had time to think about, what you've done, how you've done it and the, and, gained some insights and lessons.

Can you share some of those with us? Like, is there anything, if you're thinking it back and you're thinking of someone maybe who's at an earlier stage than you, or if it even helps thinking, you if you were to time travel and talk to Logan from a few years ago when you started, what would you tell them?

Logan (26:12.394)
The first thing I would tell them is really if you have a business idea and you're not sure, my suggestion would be just to implement it on the smallest scale possible and just do it. Don't waste a lot of time analyzing all of these details, making a business plan and mulling it over for years at a time, trying to make sure everything is precisely in order.

because the reality is you'll never actually go ahead. You'll always find a reason not to do it. And that was the case for me for years. I'd always wanted to start a business, but I could never find the perfect product or the perfect business plan. And so when I launched GrecoGum, I just said, I'm not gonna do any market research. I'm not gonna do any of that. I'm just gonna do the smallest investment possible, see if I have any nibbles. And if I do, then I can scale up from there.

and that turned out to be the case. But had I done all this market research and demographics and blah, blah, blah, I probably would have talked myself out of doing it. And the second piece of advice, which I learned a year or so into the business is it's really difficult to launch something 100 % on your own. The thought of bringing somebody else or multiple people into the mix and building together never even crossed my mind.

What had crossed my mind was, okay, I'll just shut it down. I can't sustain this and a job and a family, so I'll just close the business. That's fine. But it never even occurred to me. Well, I don't need to do everything on my own. I can have other people help out. But the thought of managing other people or trying to find the right people, it just seemed so daunting in that I would rather just the business not exist than me having to try and micromanage it at that level.

I just, I locked out and the man that I had worked with on the branding and the design, you know, we'd already had that relationship. He understood the vision and what I was trying to do with it. And you know, he offered to take the wheel and I would help drive it with him and it worked out well. But had I not mentioned that to him in a brief conversation, you know, the business would have just died after a year and I would have just moved on.

Ramon Vela (28:29.371)
Yeah, it kind of makes you wonder like these little small moments, know, conversations can have such a great impact on you, you know, like just kind of casually. I had that same experience in one business where my accountant was reviewing something and I just kind of mentioned something in passing and he's like, you know what, you know, and then he gave me some advice and later on that advice really helped me in other ways. But it's so interesting.

just these little moments, but that's fantastic. So thank you for sharing that. So let's talk a little bit about the product. So again, if anyone wants to go and take a look at what we've been talking about, you can go to greco gum.com, greco gum.com. And what are they gonna find there? What are they going, well, know, let's actually, before we do that,

Your initial, as you started this, was your initial push into DTC, Direct-to-Consumer, selling on the web, or did you start looking for retailer partners or anything like that?

Logan (29:38.838)
Yeah, we're only now just starting to expand into wholesale and getting into retailers. But for those first four and half years, it was 100 % just directly from our website, shipping to customers. That's it. it's been very. That's that's good and bad, you know, the fact that we are able to control basically every aspect of the order, we have that direct line of communication with our customers.

but at a certain point, if we will really want to upscale and bring this to the masses, we'll need to get it in some brick and mortar retail as well. At which we are doing.

Ramon Vela (30:18.277)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, you know, there's all sorts of different strategies, right? Everyone chooses something different. You know, if you look at, for instance, like Chomps, which is, the meat sticks, they stayed in DDC for, I think it's like four or five years before...

even getting into retail. And when they get into retail, I think it was Trader Joe's, they stood there for a year or two, just kind of learning the retail environment and making sure that they were prepared to not only make the most of their Trader Joe experience, but also others when they moved on. now they've expanded to other retail outlets. And then of course there's others who...

you know, their retail strategy comes on early and that's kind of what's propelled them. So I don't know, it's kind of hard to say like which one is better, but I always like, I always think that like a D to C strategy first allows you to better understand your customers because you have more interaction with them. And then you kind of do, I mean, has that been the case with you guys, like learning from your customers and their feedback?

Logan (31:24.407)
Yeah.

Logan (31:29.26)
Yeah, absolutely. And the reality is you're not going to get into any retail stores if you don't have some kind of proven sales track record, right? Like you need to establish yourself first and show that there actually is a demand for what it is that you're selling because why would they take a chance on you? And you also don't want to set yourself up for failure either, right? Like if you get into one these big retailers and it turns out actually nobody wants to buy it, then you've really kind of torpedoed your business.

So because the company has been growing organically, we're able to really get a great pulse on the things our customers are saying. We respond to all of our emails. We're in constant communication. So we think it's really important to have and build those.

intimate relationships with your customers because so much has come of it, right? Like we've done a contest where we bring a customer to the island with us. They get to see how the gum is made, meet the farmers, shake their hands. So like we're trying to do these things, you know, a little bit outside of the box, right? Because it's so incredibly difficult to cut through the noise now. I mean,

What works this month may not work next month. So you always need to be testing the waters and trying to get a little bit uncomfortable with the things that you're doing because you know, you just can't compete with these companies who have these massive social media or marketing budgets when you're a small business like we are.

Ramon Vela (33:17.651)
And what percentage of your marketing efforts are going into like the social channels like TikTok or any of those or influencer marketing?

Logan (33:34.038)
Yeah, we did a lot of working with influencers the first couple of years just to try and help spread that word of mouth. We're doing a lot more social media now, but really, I mean, it's mostly through our email list and just organic marketing that we've seen the best results. We've cultivated an email list and the conversion rates that we see there are extremely well.

And it's attracted a lot of people just because they're eager to see what we're going to say next. It's not your typical corporate marketing email list, that's for sure. And you may not like it or find it offensive or whatever. But again, we may not be the business for you and you may not be the customer for us. That's OK. But the people who love you or the people who like you will really love you. And that's

Ramon Vela (34:09.277)
Mm-hmm.

Logan (34:31.454)
more important is to have the passionate, you know, a smaller, more passionate customer base than, you know, a bigger, but lukewarm customer base because, you know, if they don't have that emotional attachment to you, they'll just go buy from a competitor if it's more convenient or, you know, two cents cheaper. But if you really believe in the things that our business is saying, you're willing to pay a premium, you're willing to stand by us because you have that bond formed.

Ramon Vela (35:01.287)
Yeah, it's kind of like what you said a little while ago about repelling customers, right? Like you're repelling, it's almost like you're, what's that term? Like when you're mining gold and you're shifting the dirt, you're taking out all the dirt and then finding those gold nuggets and those customers that you're looking for are those gold nuggets. Yeah.

Logan (35:15.372)
Mmm. Yeah.

Logan (35:23.199)
Exactly.

Ramon Vela (35:25.307)
that's an interesting strategy. and, and in some ways, you know, a lot of times people are, people say that, you know, there's, that's, you should build moats around your business, right? And there's all sorts of different types of moats that you can create around your business. And one of them is cultivating a very diehard set of fans who are going to love your product.

come hell or high water, right? and really in the work that you're doing right now that you're actively sort of like saying, Hey, this is who we are. Well, take us, take us or leave us. But if you, you, if you take us and we know for sure that you, really love us and you're gonna, you're gonna stick with us kind of deal. And then from there, obviously you want to build that relationship as well. But yeah, that's really interesting. in terms of marketplaces,

Logan (36:07.979)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (36:18.139)
So I know some other, another strategy that I've seen employed in various degrees is some brands, some small brands who were trying to get into more, who were selling direct to consumer, but also trying to get into some like retail outlets and stores and things like that. You know, last couple of years, they reduced the number of retail outlets because there's a lot of retailers that, let's just face it, some are great to work with. Others are very difficult to work with.

And it's also can be capital intensive depending on the retailer and so forth. So some smaller brands are just, you you know, it's not worth it. Like let's just lower our footprint in the retail, stick with those people who we can make money with and who are good to work with. And then let's expand in other areas like, you know, TikTok shop or.

marketplaces like Amazon or Walmart, is kind of growing right now. Have you guys looked into that strategy and are you guys available in any of the marketplaces?

Logan (37:19.33)
Yeah, we are available on Amazon now and that's something relatively new to us. And, you know, that was one of those things that we talked about doing, but we weren't sure like, do we need to be there? Is that against our brand ethos? But the reality is a lot of people were searching for our product on Amazon. So, you know, if they're looking for us there, that means there's a demand. So,

We tested it out and it's been going surprisingly well for us on Amazon. I mean, it does come with its own unique set of challenges and the fact that the type of customer that you attract on Amazon is simply not as high quality as a customer that you might attract organically on your website or through your email list, right? Amazon has a very generous return policy. So...

It has its ups and downs, but if you really want to scale something, mean, you need to be as many places as possible that is feasible, right? Like you certainly don't want to spread yourself too thin, but where we're at right now with our small retail footprint and the majority of our business coming directly through our website, it makes sense given the size of our company.

Ramon Vela (38:36.379)
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Okay, so let's get into the website. And I want to make sure that people know kind of where they start and what to expect if they're going to start their journey with Greco gum. And, you know, it's kind of funny. I'm sure you've had this comment before, but

Based on this conversation we've had about, you know, like how the brand sort of came from your likes and dislikes and your hobbies and your ideas.

in terms of working out, whenever I think of the word Greco gum, I always think of those Greek wrestlers. And then also of Sparta and those people working out. So whenever I read a Greco gum, those images fall into place for me at least.

Logan (39:33.826)
Yeah, which is no accident. That was part of the big part of the reason with the initial name change that I selected, because that was exactly the type of audience I was catering to, right? The guys who were obsessed with watching the movie Gladiator or the people reading Odyssey. That's that ideal male physique, these warriors.

Ramon Vela (39:36.701)
you

Logan (39:58.146)
that warrior culture, all stuff that guys just find cool, right? And so that was my target audience when I first launched the company, is just guys who were into that sort of stuff.

Ramon Vela (40:08.465)
Yeah, yeah, like the 300. All right, so everyone out there, we've mentioned this before, and we're obviously gonna have it on our podcast description, so you'll be able to find it there, but you can go to greco gum.com. Greco gum.com is the website, and Logan, I really love that little graphic that you have, like right at the splash page. So if you go to the splash page, anyone,

It opens up with a tin that's open.

and it starts to fill up with different, I guess, pieces of gum. So it's kind of entertaining to see that when you get to there. But walk us through what they're going to find on the website. And then is there a place for them to start or like, there any, is there like any differences in the product or is it just one skew that they choose from? Where do you, how do you want them to start with the brand?

Logan (41:09.934)
Well, the first thing is just understanding what it is we're selling. So yes, it is just one product that we're selling, which is the gum itself, but the gum does come in different sizes. So we have the droplets, which are smaller, more like little pellet pieces. And then we have our nuggets, which are bigger chunks of mastic. The mastic itself is the exact same. It's just that

Some people have a preference for the larger pieces, and some people have a preference for the smaller pieces. Now, the smaller pieces are a little bit harder to chew because of the reduced surface area. So it's a bit of a better workout. So we always recommend to our customers, if you're new to this, we suggest going with the nuggets because they'll be a tad softer and a bit of an easier transition for you.

And if you're really looking for that tough jaw workout, then go for the droplets. And aside from that, we have a very simple website, you know, just like our gum. It's stripped down to only the bare necessities. But what we do have that is very thorough and comprehensive is our blog, which you could find at the bottom. And this is where we really get into the details about all of the things that are

relevant to not only our gum, but chewing gum in general. And then a lot of the other related topics too, like oral health, gut health, the history of chewing gum, the benefits, the science-backed research. I mean, we've really done our homework here and we've combined compiled some really robust articles, just talking about all of the known benefits and

informational pieces you could find related to Mastic, the island, chewing gum in general, the benefits of chewing, the benefits of nasal breathing, which is all connected with chewing. If you're really into that side of things, there's so much there for you to read through.

Ramon Vela (43:23.601)
Yeah, I'm on, for instance, on your blog right now. And just for everyone out there, you go to greco gum.com and then there's a button that you can choose that says blog and you have everything from what is chewing gum made of. Another title is avoid sugar-free gum. Chew this instead. You also cover the history of chewing gum. You talk about can mastic gum naturally boost testosterone levels?

You talk about how the gum is harvested. There really is a lot of stuff that you go through. How long does the masted gum last? So there's sort of like an FAQ versions here. There's 18 benefits of masted gum backed by research. So you've got that in there. So there's a lot of really great information on there. And then in terms of the homepage,

You have this beautiful graphic of the tin and everything else in there. And then of course, the little animation that I mentioned earlier, I like that animation. It's kind of cool, entertaining. But you also have a series of sort of like call-outs. You have the jaw workout. You have the avoidance of or avoid plastic. You have the gut checked. You have refined taste. have...

you know, what nature wants. You have a few call outs there. Walk us through some of those. meant, you says avoid plastic. Are you talking about the packaging or are you talking about the use of petrochemicals within, you know, certain gums themselves?

Logan (45:02.35)
Well, all of the above, to be frank, of course, most of this gum does contain some kind of plastic packaging that it comes in, which we make sure that we do not. But it's the gum itself for the most part. And when I say gum is made of plastic, I mean, it literally is plastic. So if you look at the ingredient list, you'll see something called gum base. And this is true on any type of conventional chewing gum that you find.

And this is where it gets sneaky because they just say gum base, but they don't specify what's in the gum base. There's this little loophole and that's where they slip in all of the really egregious ingredients. So whether that's polyvinyl acetate or any other type of plasticizers or emulsifiers, if it says gum base on the list of ingredients, you know you're chewing on plastic.

This is something that is entering the mainstream now, but we've been beating on this drum since day one of our company. Plastic is the amount of negative effects aside from what we know, you know, ecologically, but now what we're seeing, it's effects on our hormones and what it's doing, how...

when you consume these plastics, it's entering into your bloodstream and it's staying with you. So.

We have an article on our blog that really delves into all of the harmful effects of microplastics and how pervasive they are. mean, they're in everything that you consume, basically. So you have to go out of your way to avoid these things. And to a certain point, I mean, it really is impossible in today's day and age to completely avoid microplastics.

Logan (46:56.418)
But that doesn't mean you still shouldn't try because even if you can reduce them, know, substantially, that's still much better off than just going about your day blindly consuming all of these plastics because they stay with you. Your body cannot digest them.

Ramon Vela (47:12.721)
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. It is really difficult to sort of avoid this stuff, but that's fascinating. Honestly, it makes sense what you're saying, but I had never really thought about it before, like in terms of gum and what they use in there. know,

Logan (47:26.668)
Yeah, chewing gum is just, one of those innocuous things, right? Like I didn't really give it much of a thought either until I started looking at, I started examining all other aspects of my life. And chewing gum was one of the last ones. But yeah, it's just one of these things you don't really think about because you don't swallow it. So it's like, who cares what's in it? I'm not actually.

consuming it, but just because you're not swallowing it doesn't mean you're not still consuming the ingredients that are in it. And there is a reason why they tell you never to swallow chewing gum either, right? That's one of the other different things about our gum is that it actually is edible. And in fact, Mastic is used in many culinary dishes, cosmetic products in Greece. So

It has a very rich history of many, many purposes and uses and it's safe to consume. It's used as a seasoning for sweet desserts actually.

Ramon Vela (48:27.377)
Wow, I love that. Yeah, there's just so much stuff here that you have. And I love how you keep it simple and just like the essential information. This is fantastic. I want to be respectful of your time. Is there any last words you want to leave on? I mean, we've talked a lot about what makes this gum different.

But is there anything else you want to leave with the audience for them to think about as we end this conversation?

Logan (49:00.77)
I think it's really important that people understand the impact that chewing in general or the lack of chewing has impacted modern society. The foods that we consume now are so processed and mushy that they require little to no effort compared to the unprocessed and tougher foods to chew that

you know, our great grandparents would have consumed where they would have spent, you know, on average an hour to 90 minutes a day just chewing these things. Whereas now it's something like 20 minutes per day we spend chewing. And so like any other muscle, if you don't use it, you lose it. And that's a major reason why we're seeing people who breathe through their mouth as opposed to their nose now.

because their airways have shrunken. We're seeing people with a lot more crammed teeth because our jaws have shrunk. So that's why pretty much every kid gets braces now. So that one little thing, the simple act of chewing.

If there's a way that you can reintroduce that to your life, whether that's through chewing more whole, unprocessed foods or simply by chewing gum on a regular basis, that's a good preventative, a good form of prevention against atrophy for your jaw muscles and also for improving your breathing because when you breathe through your nose,

It's much more efficient than breathing through your mouth. And if you're not used to breathing through your nose, it can be challenging for sure because you need to retrain your body to make that its default setting. And if you're not convinced, I just recommend try keeping your mouth closed.

Logan (51:04.628)
at night when you sleep and see how you feel when you wake up compared to not taping your mouth shut. And I promise you'll notice a dramatic difference. It really does have a profound effect.

Ramon Vela (51:06.152)
you

Ramon Vela (51:16.657)
Yeah. And I didn't realize that they were all sort of intertwined with the jaw and so forth. I actually had a brand called Hostage Tape on where they tape up the stuff. I had, I tried it too. And I was like, wow, this is like such a difference after doing it for a little bit. But that's amazing. What you just said right now, I never heard before. And it's just amazing.

Logan (51:24.398)
Mmm.

Logan (51:37.682)
And then that's really a big part of our messaging is that, first of all, Mastic is 99.9 % of the population has no idea what it is when they discover us, right? So we have to do a lot of education in our marketing just to even convey the product that we're selling. But then also, the importance behind why you would want to buy this product.

That's primarily what we focus on is education around things like seed oils, vegetable oils, microplastics, nasal breathing, as opposed to mouth breathing. We really take a more holistic approach for educational purposes just to try and improve our customer's life overall and demonstrate how interconnected all of these things are.

Ramon Vela (52:29.491)
Yeah, wow. I love this. I always love to learn something new and you just described something that I had never heard of before and I appreciate that. This has been amazing. Thank you so much, Logan. Let's make sure that people know where to go so if you wouldn't mind giving out the website again and then also your social media or wherever you want them to go to.

Logan (52:50.892)
Yeah, you can find us at greco gum.com or you can find us on X or Instagram as well. If you're on our website, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter as well. I think you'll find it very entertaining and interesting.

Ramon Vela (53:05.073)
Yeah, I definitely recommend that too. So everyone out there, we have just had Logan Wright, who is co-founder of Greco Gum. We're gonna have the links to the website, to social media on our podcast description, which you could find at Apple and Spotify and anywhere you listen to podcasts, simply type in the story of a brand show and you should be able to find it. Beyond that, I always say, stay sane, stay safe, stay healthy. And in this case, one way of doing that

is checking out greco gum.com.

going to the blog, taking a look, educating yourself a little bit because Logan shares some things that I had never heard of before, even from other brands. I've never heard some of the things that he just talked about. And I know that nasal breathing, know that some of the other things he mentioned are widespread. And so this may be something that you should look into if these are anything that he mentioned are issues for you, especially the nasal breathing, which I have suffered from in the past as well. Go check it out. Sign up for the new

you'll get to stay up to date on all the things that they're producing and putting together and then any retailers they eventually land in I'm sure will be announced in that newsletter. So go take a look GrecoGum.com again all those links on our podcast description. So beyond that thank you everyone thank you so much for listening to another episode of the story of a brand. and one last thing like as I mentioned earlier everyone's stressed out everyone's you know going through something so let's just do ourselves a favor and

Let's just be a little kinder to each other, little respectful to each other. Just remembering everyone is going through something. And I know if we can do that, we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.