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Returning for the 182nd episode of The Solopreneur Hour is our friend Vinnie Tortorich. He is back on the show to talk about the process, from start to finish, he went through to create his new vitamin line, Pure Vitamin Club.
This show is a perfect example of how a solopreneur can create an entire brand and product based in an industry they know so well. He’s done a fantastic job with it, and he modeled Trader Joe’s and Dollar Shave Club in process. Listen in to find out how.
More About This Show
For those of you who may be new to the show or have missed Vinnie’s previous visits, find out more about him here. To quickly recap who Vinnie is (and why we love him at TSH so much) you need to know he’s the co-host of The World’s Angriest podcast with our other friend of the show Anna Vocino. And when he’s not putting out top quality episodes, he’s training celebrities to get fit and stay healthy.
For over 20 years Vinnie has worked as a personal trainer and he’s well known in the Hollywood circuit for his ability to dramatically impact people’s health and well-being. Vinnie is the co-author of Fitness Confidential, a book he wrote with the talented Dean Lowery who has also been on the show. While accomplishing all of that, Vinnie has also survived cancer and is an avid cyclist (bicycle, not motorcycle). It’s clear his commitment to health is a thread throughout every area of his life.
Throughout the last few decades he’s wanted to create the ultimate multivitamin for people, something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg but still provided everything the human body needs and nothing it doesn’t. So he’s been studying minerals, vitamins and what we need versus what we don’t in the vitamins previously available. He’s never been able to find the ideal vitamin so 15 months ago he decided to make his own line.
The finer details of this show include:
- What is Vinnie’s percentage of failures vs. successes?
- Fitness Confidential has been optioned to become a TV show: true or false?
- What has always been Vinnie’s “religion”?
- Who makes a guest appearance on this episode?
- Initially how many bottles of vitamins did he have to order?
- And so much more!
And in case you hadn’t copped on to his solopreneurial perspective, this is where you’ll really see it: he leveraged the proceeds from Fitness Confidential to launch his vitamin line. One of the rules of thumb we’ve talked about on the show is to take a percentage of your profits and put them back into your business. In Vinnie’s case he went all in, because he has income from other sources. You may not be able to do exactly that, but you should always be leveraging some of your business’ profits to expand and advance your offerings.
Once Vinnie had decided he was going to create his vitamin line and he had the funding, his next step was to find the best form available for all of his ingredients. He figured out how to source it all and then how to create the ideal formula with those ingredients. From there he set about creating a pricing structure that would be affordable for everyone, not just the wealthiest among us.
Here’s where he used another solopreneurial tactic: he looked at other companies who are doing it right, doing business the way he wants to and he modeled his vitamin line after them. He looked at Trader Joe’s, a company that makes quality food and wines available for everyone. He looked at The Dollar Shave Club, a company that took an expensive product (quality razors) and made them affordable for all. Using those two companies as his inspiration, Vinnie made his vitamins affordable and available for anyone who wants them.
Once all the pieces of the puzzle were in place and the vitamins were ready to be released, he and Dean did a soft launch for the company. Vinnie had talked about his vitamins a few times on his podcast previously and he let his listeners know as soon as the vitamins could be purchased. And he also shared it with his Facebook groups, like any good solopreneur he leveraged his existing audience and connections.
As a result his vitamins are a massive hit. Even without a full-on launch, which he’s currently planning and working on with Dean, his vitamins are hugely popular. At one point they sold out! The company making his vitamins has them back in stock and ready but the demand is nearly as high as their ability to produce them. Because he was thorough in his planning and executed quickly, he’s had another major success with Pure Vitamin Club.
Please join me in thanking Vinnie for being with us again today! Let’s all congratulate him on his vitamin company success and the great news that Sony Pictures has offered an option for Fitness Confidential to become a TV show. Our hats off to you Vinnie, thank you for being here and for sharing your journey with all of us. And thank you all for listening, see you next time!
Episode Resources
IsaLab
Life After 8 Weeks
Pure Vitamin Club web site
The World’s Angriest Trainer podcast
Vinnie Tortorich’s previous visits to the show
Vinnie Tortorich on Twitter
Fitness Confidential, by Vinnie Tortorich and Dean Lowery
Proudly Unemployable, the Facebook group
SoloLab: A Unique Mastermind
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