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Speaker 1: This is the Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Hello,

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Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Mike Lynch, and this is

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Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. We explore the big

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Speaker 1: money issues in the world of sports and interesting collision

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Speaker 1: of topics really fascinating to us. Today, Lynchy, we're speaking

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Speaker 1: with the co found in, the CEO of the CBD

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Speaker 1: sports drink company, Defy, talking about Megan Bushell. The company,

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Speaker 1: as you may recall, is co founded by a former

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Speaker 1: guest of ours a couple of times he's been on

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Speaker 1: the show, Terrell Davis, of course, the former NFL running

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Speaker 1: back Megan. Really nice to have you with us, uh

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Speaker 1: calling us from Denver. Thank you. I'm pleased to be here.

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Speaker 1: So remind us for those who you know, weren't paying

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Speaker 1: as close attention as they should have earlier this summer

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Speaker 1: when we caught up with t D, remind us what

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Speaker 1: Defy is. Defy is a I mean, we're really the

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Speaker 1: world's first mainstream performance line that's built specifically for every

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Speaker 1: kind of athlete that contains HEMP derived CBB and all

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Speaker 1: of our products. And we launched from the market actual

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Speaker 1: in in May at the Indy five hundred, which was

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Speaker 1: really thrilling. We launched originally with our with our first

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Speaker 1: performance line of drinks, and subsequently we've expanded our product

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Speaker 1: portfolio over the last several months and into COVID. So

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Speaker 1: it's been an exciting year. Hi, Megan, it's Mike up

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Speaker 1: in Boston. We had Terrell on. He was explaining a

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Speaker 1: little bit of it to us. Um, is this a

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Speaker 1: drink that applies for all athletes, the recreational athlete as

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Speaker 1: well to the other end of the gamut as a

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Speaker 1: professional athlete. Absolutely, and we intentionally built this for the

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Speaker 1: mainstream so that it would have benefits that would be

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Speaker 1: appealing and be beneficial for not only the professional locker room,

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Speaker 1: the collegiate locker room, the weekend warriors, the yoga mom.

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Speaker 1: You know, we really wanted to create a product um

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Speaker 1: that was a mainstream premium brand that was completely transparent

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Speaker 1: in our processes and that delivered on the gold standard

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Speaker 1: promise of delivering high quality, premium CBD to you in

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Speaker 1: a variety of forms. So, when we think about pro

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Speaker 1: football specifically, obviously you guys have a very interesting window there.

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Speaker 1: How do you sort of see the use of CBD

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Speaker 1: evolving as it were because we've talked to numerous former players,

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Speaker 1: especially who really have have gotten religion around using CBD

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Speaker 1: to combat what is clearly a brutal game. I think

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Speaker 1: the NFL, as well as every other sports league out

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Speaker 1: there is very is taking a very serious look at

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Speaker 1: CBD and HEMP derivative and how they can provide potential

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Speaker 1: pain management alternatives and other benefits to their players. I

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Speaker 1: think it's their responsibility, and I know that they are

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Speaker 1: taking it very seriously and doing their due diligence when

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Speaker 1: they analyze it. I mean, you've you've heard the stories yourselves,

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Speaker 1: my partners. While Davis, you know, he is the complete

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Speaker 1: testimonial to the fact that CBD works, and it's just

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Speaker 1: absolutely transformed his life, and it's transformed many many other lives.

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Speaker 1: And so I think it's a viable alternative for players

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Speaker 1: in the locker rooms that needs to be available. I

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Speaker 1: know a number of leagues are making moves moves now

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Speaker 1: to make it available. I believe the MLB has now

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Speaker 1: essentially made it permissible for their players utilized cbb UM,

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Speaker 1: and I believe other leads will follow suit, including the NFL.

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Speaker 1: It's it's TV's passion to make it available to NFL

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Speaker 1: players like himselves, because he truly believes that had he

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Speaker 1: had CBD available to him when he was in his

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Speaker 1: playing days, but he would have had a longer career.

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Speaker 1: So Megan, if a National Football League player drinks DEFY

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Speaker 1: and then has his drug tested routinely, does it show

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Speaker 1: up as a banned substances? Is there a risk there

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Speaker 1: for any of the athletes off if they consume it. No,

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Speaker 1: not at all, And and the reason being is that

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Speaker 1: it's not all CDD has created equal And it's very

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Speaker 1: important to note that the legally permissible amounts of CBD

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Speaker 1: actually contain or can contain up to point three percent

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Speaker 1: of PhD in them. And we decided that not just

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Speaker 1: simply wasn't good enough when we founded this company, and

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Speaker 1: so we drew a line in the stands that all

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Speaker 1: of our products would actually have zero present phc are

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Speaker 1: supplying partner has actually developed a patent or developed developed

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Speaker 1: an extraction process that has been granted a patent that

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Speaker 1: removed one of the PhD and that's been tested, you know,

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Speaker 1: from A to Z multiple times. We worked with only

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Speaker 1: third party credited lab We've actually gone through the water

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Speaker 1: battery of testing. So we've actually had our products tested

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Speaker 1: by WATA to ensure that whether it's professional athletes clad athletes,

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Speaker 1: they can consume our products and be content that they're

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Speaker 1: not going to, you know, pop hot on a drug

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Speaker 1: test because those are testing for PhD. So Megan, take

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Speaker 1: us back a step and and help us understand how

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Speaker 1: you got involved in this and a little bit of

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Speaker 1: your career that led you to this point. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's so funny because if you would ask my

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Speaker 1: family or or anyone who really ended my close friends.

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Speaker 1: I was the musical theater nerd and the voice major

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Speaker 1: and uproducship major in college. So for anyone to imagine

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Speaker 1: that I'd end up landing and a career in sports

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Speaker 1: and and stuff forward to today being UM partners with

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Speaker 1: Terrell Davis, an NFL Hall of Famer and running the

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Speaker 1: company together, they would have all just left. Nobodybody, Nobody

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Speaker 1: would believe you if you had predicted that for my future. UM.

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Speaker 1: So it was quite neglected journey. But I had lived

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Speaker 1: in Los Angeles for twelve years, and for about seven

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Speaker 1: of those years I was working for a sports tech

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Speaker 1: media company and through that that's really what introduced me

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Speaker 1: into the world of sports. I worked with and developed

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Speaker 1: relationships with the front offices at vast majority of NFL teams,

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Speaker 1: about twenty one NFL teams across the nation, UM, about

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Speaker 1: half of the NHL, third in the MLS, and and

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Speaker 1: the league I deal with NASCAR, and so I worked,

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Speaker 1: you know, on a daily and weekly basis with these

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Speaker 1: professional sports teams across the nation and just truly fell

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Speaker 1: in love with with sports at large and the passion

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Speaker 1: and the dedication that goes into it. And from there,

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Speaker 1: I happened to meet Terrell Davis through another person at

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Speaker 1: BO Worley, who's one of my funding partners here, who's

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Speaker 1: the chairman and president of the organization UM. He was

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Speaker 1: friends with TV and he brought tv AND in the

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Speaker 1: mix and introduced us, and suddenly we started talking about

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Speaker 1: TVD and the potential health benefits. And fast forward to

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Speaker 1: today here we are. So it was it was certainly

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Speaker 1: nothing I would have ever predicted that. I'm very grateful

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Speaker 1: for the journey. Megan, you wear an awful lot of hats.

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Speaker 1: You're CEO, you're a mom of three step children, you're

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Speaker 1: a professional singer. How do you squeeze it all in

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Speaker 1: and make it all work. Well, you have to certainly

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Speaker 1: set priorities and and uh, you know, make some sacrifices.

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Speaker 1: I I was a professional singer for many, many years,

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Speaker 1: and and that's been my passion since I was a kid. However,

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Speaker 1: when my career in sports actually started to take off,

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Speaker 1: I had to step aside from from that for the

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Speaker 1: time being. And so unfortunately I haven't I haven't saying

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Speaker 1: on a stage in quite a few years now. It's

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Speaker 1: it's probably been about six. But but I still singing

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Speaker 1: around the house all the time. So all of our

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Speaker 1: all of my colleagues get the joy of listening to

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Speaker 1: be sing in the office, and and you know, it's

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Speaker 1: it's my uh, it's still my past and even though

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Speaker 1: it's not my profession. Right, So, Megan, tell us about

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Speaker 1: this year for the company. I mean, obviously it's been

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Speaker 1: a topsy turvy year for the world of sports. It's

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Speaker 1: obviously been um a really trying year in many ways,

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Speaker 1: especially given that we are in the midst We're talking

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Speaker 1: a little bit before we started recording about where we

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Speaker 1: are in terms of a new sort of wave of

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Speaker 1: lockdowns across the country. How has that impacted the company

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Speaker 1: and what sort of pivots, as they say, have you

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Speaker 1: had to make uh in terms of running to five

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Speaker 1: well has and and the COVID nineteen pandemic has absolutely

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Speaker 1: affected everyone, and it's certainly impacted us and and and

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Speaker 1: in a variety of different ways. You know, it's in

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Speaker 1: our business. It seems like everything kind of pressed pause

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Speaker 1: for six months and just went on a standstill. And

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Speaker 1: so during that time, because retailer and grocer category reviews

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Speaker 1: and recess, we're just completely frozen. They were just trying

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Speaker 1: to keep toilet paper and and you know, the home

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Speaker 1: basics on the shelves, so they weren't in a position

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Speaker 1: to be able to explore new categories um from a

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Speaker 1: you know, mass distribution standpoint. So that really pressed pause

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Speaker 1: for us. But we always had a focus on e commerce,

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Speaker 1: and so we simply reinvested and renewed our focus on

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Speaker 1: e commerce. And and it also gave us an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to really take a step back and focus on some

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Speaker 1: of the things that have always been important to us

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Speaker 1: from day one. And this allowed us the time to

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Speaker 1: focus on them and to really invest in them. And

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Speaker 1: so really at the early stages of the pandemic, we

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Speaker 1: were in a position um because we saw what was

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Speaker 1: happening in in March, and and so we actually donated

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Speaker 1: over just under a half million dollars of of our

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Speaker 1: product inventory to food banks, UM Feeding America, food banks

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Speaker 1: Approssimation as well as first responders. We worked with hospitals

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Speaker 1: press the country and got our products into the hospitals

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Speaker 1: because our drinks, you know, yes for performance CVD in them,

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Speaker 1: but they also have electro lights and coconut water and

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Speaker 1: niacin and B vitamins and and all of those you know,

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Speaker 1: immunity blend of of products that can help with hydration

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Speaker 1: and UM energy and performance. And so we were able

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Speaker 1: to participate in that regard. And we also in June

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Speaker 1: of this year, we actually launched our corporate social responsibility

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Speaker 1: program called Define Nation, and that was something that we

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Speaker 1: had intended from day one, and this allowed us the

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Speaker 1: time to really fick, step back and and and focus

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Speaker 1: on building off the infrastructure to support it. And Define

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Speaker 1: Nation is really a community of platform for those that

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Speaker 1: decide the every day, that have that defiant mentality that

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Speaker 1: they're not going to submit to the challenges, They're going

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Speaker 1: to overcome the challenge just whatever they are and We

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Speaker 1: initially launched this to support the veteran community, and that

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Speaker 1: was because you know TV, if you know his history,

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Speaker 1: you know, he's the founder of the Mile High Salute Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, when he was in his lame days, he

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Speaker 1: would stop in in the end zone, touchdown and salute

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Speaker 1: the troops. And he's always had a great amount of

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Speaker 1: respect and for those who have served our nation and

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Speaker 1: and has always done what he can to support them.

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Speaker 1: And so Defination was really funded to you know, support

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Speaker 1: and honor our troops and all of those who are

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Speaker 1: really defined you know, the odds, define age, define injury,

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Speaker 1: define hatred and prejudice, and as really the conversation around

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Speaker 1: equality and justice in our nation has evolved over the

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Speaker 1: last several months and come to the forefront, we realized

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Speaker 1: that we had an opportunity to expand our platform here

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Speaker 1: to really service the communities that we represent. Because what's

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Speaker 1: interesting and completely accidental actually is that Defy is a

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Speaker 1: black owned, woman owned, and veteran owned company. And it's

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Speaker 1: what trastening is that we were a group of friends

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Speaker 1: that came together to create an opportunity in an arena

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Speaker 1: where we saw a product that could really help people

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Speaker 1: and solve a problem, and at the time, we weren't

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Speaker 1: paying attention to our backgrounds. You know, this this wasn't

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Speaker 1: something that oh, let's you know architect a company that

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Speaker 1: has all of these things. No, it was just a

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Speaker 1: happy accident. And so when this conversation started really happening

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Speaker 1: on a national stage, we realized that we were uniquely

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Speaker 1: positioned to be able to UM continue that conversation. And

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Speaker 1: so TV has done quite a bit of advocacy UM

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Speaker 1: and speaking out from his perspective in the black community

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Speaker 1: UM over the last several months, and we've extended the

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Speaker 1: platform of Define Nation to also support women's organizations and

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Speaker 1: and the black community as well. And so that's kind

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Speaker 1: of been our real focus during this time, is the

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Speaker 1: larger mission driven focus of of not only you know,

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Speaker 1: having a company that does good and creates good products,

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Speaker 1: but but that does good and hopefully makes a positive

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Speaker 1: and brnt on the world. Megan, is more and more

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Speaker 1: states legalized marijuana. How does that impact your growth? I

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Speaker 1: think it certainly is something that absolutely helps us. UM.

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Speaker 1: Now what most people don't understand from a consumer standpoint

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Speaker 1: is that you know, and I didn't even understand this

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Speaker 1: because I wasn't a cannabis consumer many years ago, and

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Speaker 1: so when I first got into this, I had quite

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Speaker 1: a bit to learn of the differences between hemp and

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Speaker 1: cannabis and and all of the various cannabinoids that are

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Speaker 1: found in the product. UM. But what marijuana laws do

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Speaker 1: and the further legalization of marijuana across the country that

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Speaker 1: simply sets the stage and helps to also set the

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Speaker 1: stage for UM state regulations and also pressuring the SBA

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Speaker 1: to move you know, the CBD from Hampton Drive sources

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Speaker 1: became legal through the Farm Bill. However, the SBA has

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Speaker 1: really dragged their feet over the last several years on

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Speaker 1: providing clear national guidelines for CBD in food and beverage

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Speaker 1: and nutritional supplements, and so the states have had to

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Speaker 1: create their own patchwork quilt UH providing their own laws

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Speaker 1: and regulations about how they're going to monitor this across

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Speaker 1: an industry, and so it's created a lot of havoc

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Speaker 1: and a lot of confusion UM that is really at

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Speaker 1: the end harmed consumers. And so I think the more

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Speaker 1: we see states moving towards legalization and regulation, it just

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Speaker 1: continues to put the pressure on the FBA that hopefully

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Speaker 1: one day in the very near future they will act

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Speaker 1: and put out the regulations necessary for the health industry

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Speaker 1: to truly take off. And so, Megan, what's the next

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Speaker 1: big sort of hurdle, the next big milestone for DeFi. Well,

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Speaker 1: we are actually in the midst of preparing to roll

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Speaker 1: out to entirely new product lines, so we have find

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Speaker 1: our our hands full right now. UM, you know, continuing

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Speaker 1: kind of that mission driven focus here, a lot of

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Speaker 1: the you know, we we listen to our customers, we

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Speaker 1: listened to our partners, and we really take all of

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Speaker 1: their feedback seriously. And so one of the things, actually

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Speaker 1: two different things that that we've been continuously asked for

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Speaker 1: UM that we're finally you know, delivering upon, is that

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Speaker 1: we've created a cent a mission driven water. So we

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Speaker 1: are launching here UM next month, actually a new out

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Speaker 1: line performance water and it is a AUK line PG

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Speaker 1: nine plus um water and it's really hydration for humanity.

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Speaker 1: So this water is purely a function of our Defination

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Speaker 1: Social responsibility platform, and a portion of all the proceeds

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Speaker 1: of this outline water will be going directly back to

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Speaker 1: organizations supporting the communities that we represent. So we're aligning ourselves.

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Speaker 1: We're lining ourselves with three different organizations, one in the

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Speaker 1: black community, that women's community, and the veterans community, and

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Speaker 1: driving um the proceeds of the sale of this alkaline

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Speaker 1: performance water back to those organizations, which is just you know,

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Speaker 1: furthering kind of our mission driven focus here. On top

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Speaker 1: of that, we are actually working on a performance and

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Speaker 1: immunity blend product that is coming out in Q one

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Speaker 1: of next year. And really through about this, both of

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Speaker 1: these new product lines actually do not contain CBD. So

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Speaker 1: these are mainstream performance lines that are natural extension and

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Speaker 1: activation of our performance brand to really extend out the

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Speaker 1: portfolio and and continue to meet the needs that our

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Speaker 1: customers are telling us that they have. Megan, it's my

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Speaker 1: understanding that you can only buy these off the shelf

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Speaker 1: in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Is that right? And

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Speaker 1: if so, what are the impediments to spreading your product

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Speaker 1: to get them on the shelves in other states? Well?

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Speaker 1: As I mentioned, you know, there's a patchwork legalization and

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Speaker 1: regulation approach to CBD products across the nation, and so

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Speaker 1: there's about fifteen states that are exceptionally CBD friendly, and

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Speaker 1: so we tend to focus on those states while we

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Speaker 1: work with whether it's regulators, whether it's you know, people

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Speaker 1: that are driving change in other states. You know, we

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Speaker 1: we try to keep our finger to the pulse. We

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Speaker 1: work with a team of attorneys that keep us very

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Speaker 1: closely posted and and drive distribution based upon you know,

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Speaker 1: what is in importance with with state regulation and what's approved.

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Speaker 1: You know. So California is a very big focus of ours. Um. However,

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Speaker 1: the California Health Department still tends to crack down very

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Speaker 1: heavily on any part of continuing CBD in food and beverage,

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Speaker 1: and so we don't currently distribute in California, but we

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Speaker 1: do distribute nationwide online. Um. However, we are in the

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Speaker 1: process of actually expanding the Pacific, Northwest, Indiscopal states stuff there.

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Speaker 1: So um. You know, the interesting and exciting thing about

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Speaker 1: this industry is that it is challenging and changing on

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Speaker 1: a daily basis, and so um it certainly keeps us

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Speaker 1: on our toath Megan, it's really been a treat talking

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Speaker 1: to you. Best of luck. It is a very exciting

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Speaker 1: time for the company. It sounds like a lot right

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Speaker 1: in the near term that it's going to continue to

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Speaker 1: accelerate what you're doing. Please give our best to t

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Speaker 1: D as well Megan Bushell, she is the CEO of

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Speaker 1: the CBD Sports Drink Company. Defy a lot going on

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Speaker 1: over there. We really appreciate it. Thank you. It's been

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Speaker 1: a pleasure. And this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.

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Speaker 1: We're here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday exploring

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Speaker 1: the world of money in sports. I'm Jason Kelly. You

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Speaker 1: can find me on Twitter at Jason Kelly News and

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Speaker 1: on Mike Lench. You can find me on Twitter at

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Speaker 1: Lynch e w CDV. You're listening to Bloomberg Business of

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Speaker 1: Sports on Bloomberg Radio around the world and online wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. M