Adam Bremen is the Founder of CanDo, the maker of Keto Krisp protein bars. CanDo’s goal is to inspire and empower everyone to live a healthier lifestyle every day. Adam was born with cerebral palsy and has learned to focus on what he can do, not what he can’t. With this in mind, he founded CanDo in 2018 after starting his keto-based weight loss journey. Before founding CanDo, Adam was a Financial Advisor at Charles Schwab for 15 years.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Adam Bremen explains the meaning behind his company’s motto: it’s about what you can do, not what you can’t do
- Why Adam started making keto protein bars
- Adam’s life before founding CanDo and how he started his keto journey
- Why connecting with customers is a top priority for Adam’s company
- Adam shares his favorite word: gratitude
- Adam’s advice for anyone interested in starting a keto diet or living a healthier lifestyle
- The advantages of selling both online and in retail locations
- A recent milestone in Adam’s entrepreneurial journey and the routines that help him achieve his goals
- Some of Adam’s biggest mentors
In this episode…
After being born with cerebral palsy, Adam Bremen discovered the value of a can-do attitude. From starting his weight loss journey to breaking into the entrepreneurial world, Adam has turned every limitation into a valuable opportunity.
In 2018, Adam decided to adopt a healthier lifestyle and managed to lose 65 pounds and counting from his wheelchair. How did he do it? By implementing a keto-based diet. After seeing the benefits of this lifestyle, he was inspired to help others to live healthier, more fulfilling lives as well. Thus, CanDo was born — along with Adam’s famous Keto Krisp protein bars. Now, Adam and his team have sold over one million bars, and he’s here today to share the inspiring story behind his entrepreneurial success.
On this inspiring episode of the eCommerce Profits Podcast, Joshua Chin talks with the Founder of CanDo, Adam Bremen, about the vision and success behind his keto-based food brand. Adam discusses the impact of a keto diet on his weight loss and entrepreneurial journeys, his direct-to-consumer tactics, and the benefits of selling both online and in retail locations. Stay tuned for more!
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Special Mentions:
- “The Power of a Gratitude Practice with Adam Bremen” on the Positively Real Podcast
- Blake Mitchell on LinkedIn
- Interact Boulder
- Life Rolls On
- Kor Shots
- Vital Proteins
- Tim Ferriss
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by Phil Knight
Sponsor for this episode
This episode is brought to you by Chronos Agency.
If you are a direct-to-consumer ecommerce brand that wants to unlock the optimum customer lifetime value through email marketing, then look no further than Chronos Agency!
Our team of passionate email marketing experts have helped hundreds of brands generate over $70 million in return from email alone, and our clients receive an average of 3500% ROI from our efforts.
Chronos Agency has worked with a variety of brands, including Truly Beauty, Alya Skin, and many more. Our mission is to help real businesses achieve real results.
If you want to take your revenue to the next level using email marketing, be sure to email our team at sales@chronos.agency or visit chronos.agency to learn more.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the eCommerce Profits Podcast where we feature top founders and experts in the ecommerce industry and take an in-depth look at the struggles and successes in growing ecommerce brands profitably.
Joshua Chin 0:22
Josh Chin here I’m the host of the eCommerce Profits Podcast, where we feature top experts in the ecommerce industry and we go behind the scenes of the struggles and successes in growing a brand. Now, this episode is brought to you by Chronos Agency if you’re a direct-to-consumer ecom brand that is ready for next-level growth and to unlock the optimal customer lifetime value through email marketing and SMS marketing, Chronos is your company. We’ve helped hundreds of brands get over $17 million in results from email alone, and our clients get an average of 3500% ROI from our efforts. We’ve worked with brands like Truly Beauty, Alive Skin, The Udi, and many more. For some reason, beauty brands, apparel brands are just attracted to work in diverse. But the next step is to email us at sales@chronos.agency. Or you can go to chronos.agency to learn more. Today’s guest: Adam Bremen is the founder of CanDo, the maker of Keto Krisp protein bars, a premium low carb and low sugar snack with an unrivaled taste. Keto Krisp came about during Adam’s weight loss journey when he couldn’t find an on-the-go snack that tasted good. Now what’s most incredible about Adam is that he was born with cerebral palsy, and has been using an electric wheelchair to move around his entire life. But that hasn’t stopped him from losing 65 pounds and creating an incredible healthy snacks company. Adam, welcome to the show.
Adam Bremen 1:58
Joshua, thanks so much for having me on today. It’s a real honor. Thanks so much.
Joshua Chin 2:03
Amazing. And Adam, I have to ask the model behind your company. And it’s something that you say a lot. It’s not about what you can, it’s about what you can do. It’s not what you can’t. Tell me a story behind this, this quote.
Adam Bremen 2:19
Great question. Well, growing up, you know, my parents always instilled in my brother, myself, and my sister, literally, it’s always about what you can do. And let’s focus on the opportunities that we have. And that you know, what we can’t do, you can obviously see the chair and you would think, oh, there’s limitations. But I looked at them as opportunities and ways to figure out and be creative. And that’s the joy in life is looking at the good in what you can do in life is always about what I can do and not what I can’t, or what limitations may perceive to be out there. Because there’s not anything that I can’t do, or anybody else can’t do it, you just have to have the right frame of mind. And growing up, it was always the focus, okay, you know, you may have to look at, look at it through a different lens, but we’re gonna find a way to get it done. Whatever it takes, whether we need to go this way or that way, we’re gonna find a way to make it happen. But no wasn’t an option it was just going to be which way are we going to attack it. And there was no real formula was just, let’s figure out a way to get this done. I wanted to make it happen. I wanted to live my life just like everybody else. You know, it just so happens being in the chair was a unique situation.
Joshua Chin 3:39
I love that how you just did not let that become a limitation. And I think that’s very entrepreneurial as well. Most entrepreneurs would create opportunities out of what most people perceive as limitations, no money, no funding, no experience. That’s often, you know, common, I guess, excuses that we hear from people not wanting to start a business. And that’s just incredible to see what you’ve created from effectively scratch from scratch. So my question, and I’m really curious, why do you choose, what do you end up choosing, building keto bars, making keto bars and not keto chips or supplements, or some other form of snacks?
Adam Bremen 4:30
Great question. The reason why I wanted to focus on bars is number one, I always love food, and that’s why it was heavy in the beginning. You know, that’s why I was always overweight because I always loved to eat. I always had a little passion for food and finding what tasted great and I saw a real need for a great tasting keto snack bar as I was going through my journey, starting in 2019. There was really what I thought a real need again for a great tasting snack bar and just started working with the research and development team to figure out how we could use the keto macros and still create that great taste that customers that potential customers at that point, because Keto Krisp was just just a thought process, what they would enjoy, you know, so it was all again, I think the best businesses are, are ones where there’s a real need. And you know, that that there was a real opportunity for buyers to create that great tasting bar, a bar that you could actually enjoy, that had quality ingredients, a lot of bars that you pay, you know, they may have great nutritional values, but the taste may or may not be there, depending on your palate. So we really wanted to focus on how can we number one, make it taste great, every texture, and then deliver all the macros that one would need, whether you’re on a keto diet or not. And regardless of whether you’re on a keto diet or not, people are wanting a low-carb low sugar snack. And so with our product, we feel like we’ve checked all the boxes.
Joshua Chin 6:19
It has and one thing that I noticed is that you have incredible design on your site, who’s responsible for the design and branding elements of your brand?
Adam Bremen 6:31
Right, we partnered with a company called Interact Boulder, and they’ve done a great job. And you know, it’s been great. And Blake Mitchell has been terrific and their team was instrumental in helping us create the branding and the imagery that we wanted to allow things to pop. And it’s been great.
Joshua Chin 6:55
Yeah, they’ve done an incredible job 100%. And tell me, Adam, what happened before Keto Krisp? Before you started CanDo.
Adam Bremen 7:06
Before Keto Krisp actually I was in the finance industry working for Charles Schwab, I was a financial consultant for 15 years, and I enjoyed that I enjoyed connecting with people and help helping people build out their portfolios, and set, you know, create financial plans and things of that nature. And then an opportunity came where I had a chance to move to LA and, and then really is, was at an event called Life Rolls On that helps people with special needs serve. And I was so moved and inspired by the day. I said, you know, if I was in better shape, I could do more physical activities like this. So then I started researching different lifestyles and how to lose weight and just how to be healthier in general. You know, as somebody that’s in a chair, you typically sit down, obviously more than your average person, because people are getting up and walking around. And because of the circumstance, I’m not walking around a whole lot, so or as much I should say, it’s not an excuse, just, you know, situational. So I said, Let me look at some different diets and started working with a buddy, and then we got into the pool was just started doing some exercises and then made changes to the diet and then, you know, the weight would just fall off. And I, you know, I really adopted this keto lifestyle. You know, by chance, I didn’t really know much about keto, I kind of fell into it. But you know, Google is our best friend nowadays. And we just type in keto and it comes up with all this information and actually reading and watching different movies in different documentaries. And just, I was just so amazed at that success. I’m like, if I do this, look what’s going to happen here, so we just started trying things. And I guess it was the mentality of never being able to, to be afraid to fail and always willing to try something you never know in life until you try. So just kept trying and doing different things.
Joshua Chin 9:17
That’s incredible. So you started on the keto diet, just through Google. I can really relate to that because I actually did, went on a strict keto diet for a couple of months until I had some cholesterol issues that I could that I had to switch away from keto, but uh, were you testing out just curious, were you testing out your, were you taking blood tests or urine tests to figure out if you’re in ketosis or not?
Adam Bremen 9:51
No, I wasn’t I wasn’t doing the blood test. I wasn’t doing the urine test. I was just noticing, you know, just by quickly eliminating the carbs and sugars, and then drinking tons and tons of water and then just noticing the results. That was good enough for me. And just obviously, the way that I felt. You know, I just felt great. And it was working. I didn’t need, you know, I didn’t need that other layer of validation or measurement, or whatever. I just saw the results, and I was happy with it. And then I’m like, Well, how can I share my story with the rest of the world? And then the opportunity to create a food product was, was there and it was just, you know, it just one thing led to another. If you would have told me two years ago, I’d be in the bar business, I would say, you know, you’re crazy.
Joshua Chin 10:51
That’s incredible. And today, Keto Krisp has multiple retail locations that you guys are selling through. As well, your online, online website you’re selling through. What’s the future of Keto Krisp, that you’re envisioning?
Adam Bremen 11:10
Well, we’re just going to continue to hone in on our skills and continue to create great-tasting products, we currently have five bars on the market where we’re looking at launching and new flavors about every three to four months. And we just want to continue to be innovative be on the front line of, you know, great tasting better for you food, you know, we believe that there’s plenty of room on the wheel, we just want to ride on it. And so we were having said that the most critical aspect to me is being able to connect with the customer, and really listening to their feedback, and dialing in on what’s important to them. And, you know, they’ll tell you what they need, and we spend a lot of energy and passion into connecting with our customers to be able to lead us in that direction.
Joshua Chin 12:06
And you personally did that. That was something from an outsider’s perspective, that seems like something that’s super unscalable. Connecting with customers in the one on one basis at retail locations, like physically, as well as true, I guess, online channels yourself. Are you still doing that today?
Adam Bremen 12:27
Of course, I try to get through as many emails as I can and try to reach out to as many customers as I can. Before COVID I was actually going into our retail locations and doing demos myself. Because that to me is really the excitement of it all being able to connect to customers, like yourself and being able to tell the story, not necessarily my story, but hearing their story about why they’re interested in a particular product, what they look for in their food. What are they what would they like to eat? What don’t they like to see? I just like to ask questions. I’m curious by nature.
Joshua Chin 13:05
What is the most interesting encounter that you’ve come across in and if I guess either online or in the physical retail location in connecting with customers, any cool stories there?
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