Speaker 0:01

Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs 0:36

Well, welcome back to the Heart-Led Business Show. Today we're diving into the dynamic world of health and hustle. With none other than Trevor Bower. The man with a plan. Born from nearly a decade of real world supplement retail experience. With the heart for honesty, and a mission to empower your workouts, Trevor turned Centurion Labz into a beacon of transparency, discipline, and loyalty. Get ready to flex your mind as we explore the art of purpose-driven business with Trevor. Let's pump some passion into those headphones. Trevor, welcome to the show.

Trevor Nolan Bower 1:11

It's great to be here, Tom.

Tom Jackobs 1:12

I am really excited to work with you or to have you as a guest on the show. I actually knew about Centurion Labz. Maybe like two or three years ago. I was just at a supplement store and I saw it's very uh, dynamic packaging. I was like, that's really cool stuff. Just that we connected and you're here on the show, so it's kind of a, fun full circle.

Trevor Nolan Bower 1:36

Yeah. That's really cool to hear.

What Heart Led Means

Tom Jackobs 1:38

Yeah. So of course the first question I always like to ask is what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Trevor Nolan Bower 1:45

To me, it's really about providing something, you know, a service or a product that makes a real difference in your life that you can really stand behind and be compassionate about.

Centurion Labz Origin

Tom Jackobs 1:58

Okay. That's awesome. Tell us a little bit about Centurion Labz and what prompted you to go into the supplement business.

Trevor Nolan Bower 2:05

So I actually entered the supplement business by accident. I kind of say because I was only involved at the start of this business to run the website and do some marketing. And I ended up eventually becoming a full owner of the business. And when we started, we were just doing retail and carrying other brands in our store. So over time we realized, hey, you know what? We could actually make better products than what else is out there. So we started creating our own products and our own brands. And in 2020 I had the opportunity to buy Centurion Labz, which is a brand that I had on my shelves for a few years at that point, and, you know, it was my favorite brand where I could really stand behind the value of the products and how excited people were to use the products. And I, with being able to buy it, I was able to revamp the packaging, improve the things that I wanted to improve, improve the communication, the transparency, the ethos of the business. So, uh, it's been a really, awesome project, if you will. It's, you know, my career, my livelihood. But, to me it's just a, an exciting thing that I get to work on and, provide these products that I use myself and thousands of other people use and enjoy. And, you know, we can essentially set a new standard for the supplement industry, which is just really cool.

Retail First Approach

Tom Jackobs 3:41

Yeah. That's really cool. And kind of listening to your story, because you started in a retail space first, right? Just as a retail supplement store. And then went upstream to have actually a supplement brand that now you sell to others. Is that correct?

Why Local Stores Win

Trevor Nolan Bower 3:58

So yeah, we, we have had a mom and pop retail store and we had up to five locations at one point, but then when I bought Centurion Labz, I was able to commit to myself and to other retail stores across the country that, you know, we would be very retail friendly. So we do have a couple hundred privately owned stores that we sell to across the US and then we have some international distributors that we work with. But our promise to the, those retail stores is that, you know, we're not going to, sell distribution or, do things that are going to compromise the integrity of the brand and make it harder for them to sell it. Um, which ends up, it's the typical evolution of, of supplement brands is they try to build themselves up in stores. Then as they get bigger, they, you know, they start to kind of undercut them online and, not really support them in the way that uh, a a retail store really needs to be supported. Specialty retail, as you can imagine is it's difficult. And when you don't have, brands of the, the product sitting on your shelves, if those brands aren't supporting you, it's really hard.'cause that's, that, that's the product that you're selling. You're not selling your own brand, typically. You're selling these other brands, so you, you're relying on them to be consistent over time and that's a very hard thing to find in a partner.

Tom Jackobs 5:25

I can only imagine because, people's favorite place to shop is Amazon. So you can see suplements on there for$45, but you go to the local store and it's$55. It's like, well, why would they ever do that? And, disruptor on distribution by doing that.

Trevor Nolan Bower 5:42

Well, you know, with having, uh, a mom and pop retail store myself and going to round to a lot of our partner stores. They actually tend to sell the products less than you find online. So you get that benefit, you get it right away. You don't have to wait for it to show up. And then you also have essentially like a sales consultant to talk to, to help you find the right product, right? Amazon, yes, you have a catalog of all these different products that you can choose from to try to find what you're looking for, but you don't have someone with that actual personal experience to say, Hey, for you.'cause you say you're looking for this and because this is your background, this is what I recommend for you. And having someone to be able to talk to about those things and talk to about your goals and get, you know, advice from in all different areas, not just supplements, but in all areas of fitness and health, um, that's really valuable. And so when you go into a mom and pop store, that's you're, you're supporting that store that's trying to provide more service to you than just the product that you're walking out of the store for. So you have to, you know, consider your, I mean, you're technically paying for that too, because they have to cover their overhead, but typically, you're actually getting a better price than online, or at least, often, being matched what is selling online because, they know that that's what they're competing with, but they're also providing the service to you. And, and that is something of value that I think a lot of people forget. And they, if you want to be able to walk in that store and ask questions from time to time. They're not gonna be around if you don't continue to support them on an ongoing basis, rather than just go in, ask your questions, and then go buy online. You know, that really hurts retail stores and you know, obviously we, you know, we see that a lot, you know, even in clothing stores and all sorts of things. But with retail, it is difficult and, and those stores really do need, do need your support.

Tom Jackobs 7:39

Yeah, exactly. Well, and it becomes even more difficult if there's brands that are undercutting or just making it difficult. It's so refreshing to hear that your brand doesn't do that at all and really supports those local businesses.

Trevor Nolan Bower 7:54

Yep.

Tom Jackobs 7:55

And it kind makes sense makes sense that, coming from the retail store, you would have that, that ethos within you to make sure that, that happens properly.

Learning By Doing

Trevor Nolan Bower 8:05

It's, it's something that, it's definitely a conscious effort because, I know myself how difficult it is in this business, and I know how I wanna be treated as a partner. So, um, that is always, forefront on our minds.

Tom Jackobs 8:19

Were you doing before the, uh, the retail store?

Trevor Nolan Bower 8:23

Uh, web design and online marketing? I was building websites and yeah, doing some SEO and things like that.

Tom Jackobs 8:29

So that's quite a, quite a shift, right? From, working on computers and then to retail and now to supplement. How has that transition been for you or the transformation, like all the different skills that you've had to learn along the way?

Trevor Nolan Bower 8:43

Yeah, I'm a very hands-on learner and I think the best way to learn something is by doing it through experience. And I think that is why our products are so good. I've had, different chemists and biochemistry, individuals that have helped us formulate our products. But the reason the products are so good is because I've used our practical experience in hearing what people say about our products and how they feel on different products. And, we've taken different products and brands on the shelves and we've just continued to improve them over time. So, I don't, I don't think anything really replicates that just experience over time with anything. And, and also I think if you learn to do some things by the book, you'll never find another way to do it. It's hard to open your mind. Uh, and, and when you're kind of, new and fresh to something, you have a different perspective. And I think that can be really valuable, although, it takes longer to, to figure things out. Initially in the long run, I, I think it's an actual, uh, gift to, to be able to be like really kind of new and fresh to something and in somewhat naive, but have a good heart and purpose to what you're trying to achieve. I think, just having the passion, the desire to do something better, you will end up doing it better than, just someone that's really intelligent and smart and, has all the training because they're gonna do it the same way that it's always been done. And I just, I really like creating something new and fresh that's never been done before.

Fitness Journey Purpose

Tom Jackobs 10:22

Yeah, that's very refreshing to hear because we don't need just iterations of the same thing over and over again. That's for sure. So how do you bring the heart into your business on a personal level?

Trevor Nolan Bower 10:35

I really struggled with my fitness journey. I started in high school, but I was really committed to it in college and I had certain health setbacks, but, it's mostly my body's just really stubborn and I see progress really slowly. Genetic traits all of our bodies are different and no one will see, progress at the same pace as someone else. We're all just kind of built different and, and we need different things. So I did a lot of trial and error, a lot of experimenting, a lot of different diets and different training and, I've put so much into my own personal fitness journey that if I can save someone else just a little bit of time to do things the right way and to motivate them and to encourage them to keep going because persistence is the most important thing in fitness is just continuing into goal. Quitting is not gonna get you anywhere.

Tom Jackobs 11:38

Yeah.

Trevor Nolan Bower 11:39

If I can, just help people do it a little bit easier than my journey, then I feel like I've accomplished my job.

Brand Philosophy Mindset

Tom Jackobs 11:49

Yeah. Yeah. Are there other ancillary things that you add on to the supplement itself, like additional education or other things that are outside the norm that, really help that consumer experience the product along.

Trevor Nolan Bower 12:05

With, with my main brand, Centurion Labz, we're really creating a, there's a whole philosophy behind the brand. And, we have a couple of slogans that we go by, and the one is, the workout is one before the first rep. Because the great centurions, the legendary warriors, the best there ever were believed that the battle was won before the first shot. Essentially just meaning that if they prepared the best, they would win the most preparation equals success. And so we bring that philosophy into training and into supplements that if you are prepared physically and mentally. By the time you walk into that gym, you've already won, you've already succeeded in your workout. And then you go in there with the strength and the power to, push through and have the best workout of your life every single day. So that is a mindset that we carry through. And a lot of our, uh, product users carry as well, as they go through their workout. Like this is the mentality. I have a a trademark for Be Pre-Responsible, which is being responsible. It's pre-workout to power with co power, with caution. Uh, and it's essentially pre-workout is, I don't see any other brand do this, uh, which is telling people don't take too much pre-workout. Um, and, our products are about as strong as they could be without being unhealthy or unsafe. Right? The the problem is, is if people take, start to go over the top, supplements are designed to help you take yourself to your limits, not past your limits, right? So my goal, um, being in this business is to help people do things responsibly. And, educate along that line. Um, and then we have other things that we really we're, we're building into our philosophy and we, we talk a lot about which just different things like, power is strength with purpose and there is a real power to unity and, brotherhood and sisterhood of building each other up instead of a lot of the industry is, they kind of tear other people down. So, there's these different things that are part of our brand that those who are supporting our brand kind of believe the same. Ethos that we believe, and it really makes the whole brand and community stronger. And I think that it provides a trickle down effect throughout the, uh, hopefully throughout the industry, and, over time, throughout, um, a much larger community than we have today.

Tom Jackobs 14:58

Yeah, and I love that the fact that you bring the story of the centurions into the brand itself and it just carries through everything from the packaging to the labels. You know, what is says on the label, even like it's so, precise and I really want to commend you for doing that. It's different and then you see the, a white bottle with, the generic.

Trevor Nolan Bower 15:21

Yeah.

Community And Craft

Tom Jackobs 15:22

Like, okay, which one do I choose? Oh, the cheapest one. Right? But you want a one that's building the community as well. And to me that's heart-led. As well is just because you're looking at other ways to embody your brand in with the community that's already, accepted it.

Trevor Nolan Bower 15:39

Well, we don't create any like generic products. Even our creatine product has additional things in there to help you get more function and purpose and utilization out of the product. I'm very against just doing, creating the same thing that everyone else creates that's standard and ordinary, and doesn't do it any better, so my job is to create products that are going to help people further, beyond what the typical supplement is going to. So, we're really focused on not making it sound fancy and just throwing stuff in there to throw stuff in there, which some brands do unfortunately. We put things in there that are actually going to, you will see and feel the benefit. Otherwise I wouldn't have the product out there. But you know, even to exemplify, like, what, what I think is really cool with with this brand is I recently created, um, I had a book handcrafted the Centurion credos, and it has a leather cover. And it's etched and painted and has some, a hardware clasp on it with 250 weathered pages. Uh, and it contains, this full appendix with and the, the entire book, uh, is full of, of war stories, mythology and Roman history. It's really cool. So I, I love being able to kind of bring all of that into the brand and create so much more meaning. Than what you, you typically see in a, in a supplement brand. Most brands have the same kind of things that they go by, and I want people to understand how different we are and not just buy all this Roman stuff, but it's how we bring it together and the things that we do on a daily basis from, emailing our customers after they, they order on our website with photos and tracking and just letting'em know that we're here for them. Like all the little things that we do, me as the owner, like designing our labels and getting on the phone with the customers and like, we do a lot of things that other brands do not do. And it's just really, it's really cool and exciting to be able to have this to just kind of keep building on. Like I said, I like creating things, so, uh, it's just really exciting to not only be able to be helping people but have this. Just, like I said, it's like a project. It's like a, just a huge passion project to be able to keep doing cool, neat things that people are really excited about.

Profit With Purpose

Tom Jackobs 18:06

Yeah. Yeah. No, no doubt. And it shows as well. So let's shift gears a little bit and let's talk about the business side of being a heart-led business and how do you balance

Trevor Nolan Bower 18:16

still

Tom Jackobs 18:16

making a profit and being heart-led at the same time?

Trevor Nolan Bower 18:20

That's something that I struggle with. We're 10 and a half years in business and our financials have really fluctuated a lot. A lot of our past, I really focused on what thought was going to be sustainable for our business long term. And the world has changed a lot. We had COVID and the economic landscape continues to change how people buy their buying behavior continues to change. And so I've realized that I can't do as much as I want all at once, and I have to slow down. And sometimes focus a little bit more on, just making it through the short term financially.'cause with, if the business isn't healthy financially, we won't be able to grow and reach more people and do more for people. So it's my goal to make sure that this business stays around and I'm still learning how to do that, as things continue to change and we continue to, grow and adapt. There's always new things that we're learning, but we're working really hard to make sure that we're here for the long term.

Tom Jackobs 19:26

Yeah, the problems keep coming they're just just bigger problems and they just need to be solved faster. I've definitely learned that over last 30 years of owning different businesses that you just can't rest too much. I mean, it's nice to rest a little bit, but there's always something.

Leading Your Team

Trevor Nolan Bower 19:42

I've been in that spot a few times where, I got a little bit relaxed because things were going well, we had momentum on our side, and then, something changes or something happens and then it's like a, a race to, to fix it or get back on track and that's tough, you try to anticipate everything and you just can't, there's regulatory barriers, there's economic challenges and it's just you can't anticipate everything, but, you just keep plugging away.

Tom Jackobs 20:10

So there's always three different people that we always have to please in business, you have your shareholders. You have your employees, and you have obviously the customers as well. How do you take care of your employees from the heart?

Trevor Nolan Bower 20:23

So I have two and a half full-time employees at this point. I've had up to 12 employees in the past and it was very difficult to try to take care of them at that time, especially, between five locations. I could only be in one place. I had a lot on my plate, always. I never had the best team in the past that I could delegate things to. And with retail stores, there's a lot of training and lot, a lot that goes on where I have not, I don't feel like I was able to really do a great job on making sure that everyone had what they needed all the time. I would ask but I wasn't present. At this time having two full-timers and one part-timer, I am so much more easily available to them and make sure that they have the tools that they need to succeed and they have the autonomy to make their own decisions in the realm that they're working in. I love this structure and obviously you have to have the right people for that to work. But I have people that I can delegate things to and I can trust that they'll get certain things done and trust that they will get their job to do their job to the best of their ability. And the number one thing is they're taking care of our customers, right? At the end of the day, giving too big of a discount's not a problem. Taking care of the customer is always the number one goal, and I, my job is just to support them in doing their job. And that's what I try to be as a resource. And I mean, we're all friends that helps too, is, we all have good personal relationships as well as business relationships. And sometimes it requires having a little bit of separation there which is hard for me. But that's how I look at my, I don't look at myself as a boss. It's actually, don't like to be called boss. It's just I, I, we're just a team working together towards the same goal.

Tom Jackobs 22:26

Yeah. And given the autonomy to make their own decisions, I think that's a skill that is hard for a lot of entrepreneurs and founders and CEOs to really embody. But it frees you up so much and it gives so much power to the employee to make the right decisions, and oftentimes they make better decisions than we may have.

Trevor Nolan Bower 22:49

Yeah. Absolutely true.

Where To Find Them

Tom Jackobs 22:51

Awesome. How can people learn more about Centurion Labz and everything that you're doing?

Trevor Nolan Bower 22:57

You feel free to go to our website, centurionlabz.com. Labz ends with a z. We have different social media platforms that we're on. And we're actually in the process of rebuilding the website that I think will further exemplify everything that we're about. But I have a chat on there. A live chat that typically comes to me and the phone number on the website you can call or text and also get our help regardless of what it is. If you're just trying to get healthier, you're trying to be more active you're looking for something that'll help you, whatever it may be, you could feel free to reach out and we will help you the best that we can.

Discount And Wrap Up

Tom Jackobs 23:38

Oh, that's awesome. And I believe you have a special link for the audience as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Trevor Nolan Bower 23:45

There, it's a 20% off discount code, which is a pretty steep discount.'Cause we're already priced really competitively. But yeah, if you're tuning in and you wanna purchase off of our website, there's that 20% off code Legion 20. That I believe Tom's gonna provide here for you in the description of the platform.

Tom Jackobs 24:05

Yep, yep. We're gonna put that all in the show notes for sure. Yeah.

Trevor Nolan Bower 24:09

Sounds great.

Tom Jackobs 24:10

Awesome. Trevor, thank you so much for spending your time with us today. And sharing your story and your experience, Um, I really do appreciate it.

Trevor Nolan Bower 24:18

Of course. I appreciate you having me here.

Final Thanks and Outro

Tom Jackobs 24:20

Absolutely. Thank you audience for tuning in today and listening on your podcast player of choice. So make sure you're checking out everything that Trevor's doing. We're gonna link all of that down into the show notes. So that you're able to just very easily click on that discount code. Go get some great Centurion Labz supplements, and then just feel the power within you, feel that warrior within you. And also, while you're down there and clicking away, make sure that you give the show a rating and a review, it really does help get the word out about show. So that we can help more people who wanna be heart-led their business. And until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2 25:00

You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.