S1:E3 – The Goodfellas of Hydration
Show Notes:
James Mayo:
Hello everyone and welcome to my podcast. I’m James. I’m the Chief Hydration Officer and today I’m introducing my little brother who’s here to help talk about the world of health and family businesses, why we joined forces to become—let’s call it—the “goodfellas”, with my better half Blanca, of hydration. Tom, welcome to the adventure. What is your favorite memory of how we got started with SOS?
Tom Mayo:
You would think it was us in the vineyard having a few too many vinos coming up with the idea, but the one that got me the most excited was the little sachet arriving. Remember it was called sample set AE010113 or something. It was the first ever sample set. It arrived in the post, it arrived from the laboratory—there it is! That’s the magical powder. I did get a call from New Zealand Customs when it arrived because they were fairly suspicious of what the white powder arriving in a bag was, and we were very lucky to know the guy as a personal friend; [he] let it in and the story began. That’s when it became real – because we all have ideas, but that was reality.
JM:
Well it is, and it definitely looked like something from Goodfellas. “AE 29116” was what we called [the sample]. The winery was an awful lot of fun. That’s where we came up with the concept in sunny Sonoma. When all of a sudden there’s a product in your hands something is very different. Oh, how the packaging has changed from yesteryear to today.
TM:
It’s insane, isn’t it? But, always the best product inside. I always wanted to get into a product because I’d been in consulting roles and with events, but I always thought inventing a product was something unique. About three or four years before this came on board, one of my mentors said to me that’s something [I] should look into. Suddenly, serendipitous desire and opportunity came together.
JM:
With your background of doing major sports events and all that fun stuff from the world of sailing to triathlon to rowing to being a runner yourself—now here you are hydrating all those people that you’ve been advising.
TM:
I know, and it’s a [question] of how do you convert the masses to walk into your event, and [now] it’s the same—how do you get someone excited to pick up your beverage. That’s the biggest challenge—a very exciting challenge and it never stops.
JM:
What’s the one thing about your field of expertise that almost no one agrees with you about?
TM:
I don’t think people realize how diverse marketing has become nowadays. Everyone thinks it’s as simple as price, place, promotion and make a few promises. But it’s such a diverse category now. A lot of my generation don’t believe how diverse and how different marketing is nowadays [compared to] twenty, thirty years ago. You can’t switch off for one minute. A new channel opens, a new avenue opens, a new form of media [opens]. So, never stop learning.
JM:
The other thing that almost no one agrees with you about is who was the faster brother.
TM:
We will be seeing this again soon.
JM:
My brother’s moving to Phoenix, so we’re going to have to test out that theory of age versus speed. [What is] one thing on the SOS journey that you didn’t expect?
TM:
Someone said to me, “it will take ten years”, and I was like “no, it’ll be two!” It’s been a very different journey to how I thought. It does take time. But you want to take your time. Don’t rush it because you’ll miss an important foundation step. I thought it might come quicker, but I’m glad it didn’t.
JM:
I’m glad we’ve built it deep, and I’m excited [about] where we are today and the growth has been cool, but, yeah, it always takes longer than you expect. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about proper hydration for everyday living?
TM:
It’s a daily thing in the morning. I was always the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff drinking it desperately after a five-mile run. Then I realized this needs to be something that’s done in the morning every single day. That’s changed me completely from how I feel in the morning, the amount of coffee I drink, the amount of lunch I eat, what I eat for breakfast. It’s completely switched my day, and I’m so much better for it and so thankful for it.
JM:
What’s been your top “aha” moment [on] the SOS journey?
TM:
First “aha” moment was picking up the ready-to-drink. Five, ten, fifteen years that’ll be everywhere. Everywhere in the world.
JM:
I like it. Let’s make that happen. What makes you feel inspired or like your best self?
TM:
Being surrounded by intelligent, motivated, fun people. If you’ve got a team of smart people who are all motivated going in one direction, you have a different pace. It’s incredible momentum. It only takes one bad egg to ruin the lot unfortunately, so it’s important that you surround yourself with the best people.
JM:
I agree with that—the people are everything. If you could have a billboard, what would you put on it and why?
TM:
“Go fast, go further”. You just don’t stop. If everyone wakes up motivated and feels positive so many great things happen.
JM:
I like it. What’s your favorite hydration hack?
TM:
I think people in winter don’t appreciate that dehydration in the cold is pretty bad. It’s vital to stay more hydrated because you’re wearing more clothes, you’re sweating more, it’s very dry air, sometimes you’re up at altitude so you need to “one and a half” what you would [drink] at sea level or in normal weather. My hack is I slip a packet of SOS into my running shorts and neck it after about ten miles, and bang, I’ll finish the twelfth mile beating my brother.
JM:
Twelfth mile I’ll let you beat me. Anything less than four hundred meters we’re on. Where can anybody find SOS online?
TM:
What I found was amazing. Just Google “SOS Drink”. Anywhere in the world now it’ll pop up, and I think that’s an achievement in itself.
JM:
Tom, do you want to add anything else?
TM:
Don’t forget to drink SOS every morning. Give it thirty days and see how you feel. The thirty day challenge! It’s there, it’s on you — go for it.
JM:
Tom it’s been fun working with you, and I’m excited for you to move to America in a couple of months’ time. Everybody out there, thanks for listening. Be sure to grab the show notes from chiefhydrationofficer.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode and maybe a little bit more. Subscribe to the podcast and meet us back here for the next episode. Look forward to it, thanks very much, and cheers!